Don't ignore child's chest discomfort

NEW DELHI: Ignoring your adolescent child's chest discomfort or presuming it to be muscular pain might be dangerous as it could actually be a precursor to a major heart attack.

Given the higher propensity in Indians towards cardiac ailments as compared to people of other races, there is an urgent need to make people aware of the danger from an early age, doctors say.

Nineteen-year-old Prakash Gupta (name changed) from East Delhi suffered extensive heart attack and was admitted to a hospital in Noida. Angiography showed blockage of major artery and significant dysfunction of his left ventricle.
Don't ignore child's chest discomfort
28 Sep 2008, PTI


It was later revealed that the boy had suffered from chest discomfort lasting for half-an-hour two months prior to the attack. However, it was diagnosed as muscular pain then.

In another case, 17-year old Sunil, who underwent coronary angiography at a heart institute following a heart attack had to undergo angioplasty.

The analysis of these patients and that of some others showed that all of them had suffered from chest discomfort which was misdiagnosed as muscular pain, leading to heart attacks in the following months that could have been averted by timely action.

"Other cases of individuals slightly over 20 years of age point to a common thread of a history of chest discomfort, which was overlooked and the high risk children suffered from massive heart attacks with poor functioning of the pumping chamber due to block in major artery," said Dr Purushottam Lal of Noida's Metro hospital.