Cardiologist Opens Up About His Own Heart Attack: 'I Went Through Denial' [View all]

Today, Feb. 4, 2022. - He was enjoying a vacation day when the chest pain suddenly began. -

- VIDEO at Link. As a cardiologist, Dr. William Wilson talks to patients about heart attack symptoms every day, but when his own chest pain began, his first reaction was disbelief. “Deep down, I knew what it was, although I went through the usual denial for probably about 10 minutes because I was thinking that this can’t be happening to me,” Wilson, who practices at Parkview Health in Fort Wayne, Indiana, told TODAY.

“I was trying to talk myself out of it... but the pain didn’t let up. It just kept getting worse and worse.”

Wilson’s heart attack, which happened in January 2018, caught him totally off guard, he said. He was 63 at the time, did not smoke, and did not have high blood pressure or high cholesterol. He had a normal body weight and exercised “like crazy.” His only risk factor was a family history of heart disease — his father had a heart attack and a stroke. Four years after Wilson’s ordeal, he is sharing his story to help others stay vigilant for symptoms and be aware that heart attacks can happen even if a person is doing everything right to prevent them.

- VIDEO: Heart attack warning signs you should not ignore. FEB. 1, 2021.

‘I was thinking, I’m going to die’ Wilson had a vacation day when his heart problems began. His wife was scheduled to meet her trainer at the gym that morning, so he came along and was just casually walking around when the chest pain began. “I don’t want people thinking that I was at the gym and really hitting it hard and just going crazy, working out too hard — that wasn’t it at all,” Wilson said. “This exact same thing could have happened at the grocery store or at home because I wasn’t doing anything strenuous.”

Besides the chest pain, Wilson noticed he was dripping wet — sweating like he had never perspired before, he recalled. When he looked at himself in the mirror, he noticed “this horrible gray color.” This does not happen to cardiologists, he thought. But it was happening: Wilson became one of the 805,000 Americans each year to have a heart attack.

Other symptoms can include shortness of breath; pain in the jaw, neck or back; and lightheadedness...

- Read More, https://www.today.com/health/health/cardiologist-heart-attack-rcna14727



- Dr. Wilson in the hospital.