Any person and especially those with pre-existing heart disease or with more than one risk factors, should do the following when any of the above-mentioned symptoms are experienced :
- Sit quietly at one place and take a deep breath.
- Inform a friend/ relative/ colleague that you have chest pain and it may be due to heart.
- Put a tablet of sorbitrate or Isordil (5 mg) under the tongue and chew it, or spray Nitroglycerine in the mouth. Always keep these medicines with you; they can help greatly during crisis.
- Always keep ‘health card’ in your pocket. That should have information about your illness, medicines, your doctor and hospital.
- If pain does not subside within 5 minutes, chew one more tablet.
- Take blood thinning medicine – Aspirin or Disprin (325 mg) after it in water or it may be swallowed.
- If the pain still persists, contact your doctor, call the ambulance and reach the hospital immediately. Perhaps it may be a heart attack. Wasting time may prove fatal.
A person with heart disease should avoid all situations which can precipitate angina. If such a situation is unavoidable, one should take tablet sorbitrate or Isordil under the tongue proactively 5 – 10 minutes before. This will reduce the possibility of angina.