"A
widow maker is a nickname used to describe a highly
stenotic left main coronary artery or
proximal left anterior descending coronary artery of the
heart. This term is used because if the artery gets abruptly and completely occluded it will cause a massive
heart attack that will likely lead to death..."
This is what wiki says should have killed my 32 year old husband. Lucky for me it didn't. I've read and re-read article after article saying my husband should be dead from his left anterior descending (LAD) arterial blockage. He had a 100% oclussion at the very base of this artery that feeds the front of the heart.
My husband, JD, came in from mowing complaining of intense left arm pain along with the feeling that someone was sitting on his chest. He told me he was hot and had broken into a cold sweat. My mind went straight to heart attack. Thankfully, WebMD and my brain were on the same wavelength and we only live 4 minutes from the hospital. "From the minute a widow maker hits, there is a five-minute window of time to get to a hospital or receive emergency care." Wiki always has a way of wording things to make you feel better.We got there in time, JD was in the catheter lab within 20 minutes of walking through those ER doors.
This is our story of how we survived and fought back from that widowmaker heart attack on May 18th, 2010.
