Many moons ago my father passed on after a heart attack. He was only 54. I often wonder whether anything could have been done to save him.

He said to me a few weeks before he died that his arms were aching. I learned later this was a sign of an impending attack.

Anyone know whether intervention would have saved him?

Well non-intervention did him no good so intervention could only make things better (IMO).

I had a brief spell of cold sweat on a plane. Upon return, I saw a GP who recommended me to see a heart specialist the next day. I went through the treading mill and failed miserably. Two days later, he did an angiogram and found 99% blockage on the main vessel. One day after, he did an angioplasty (or commonly known as a balloon) to burst out the blockage. Surprisingly, really painless and two days later I was working in my office and breathing freely.

Your question is a good one. In my case, I was lucky of having such a GP who then strongly recommended me to check with a heart specialist. In this modern day, the technology is so advanced that quick "intervention" could have saved life. Well, at that time, you cannot blame yourself for not knowing the tell-tale sign but now you know.

A couple weeks ago I was feeling some chest pain and numbness in my left arm. I made an appointment for the next morning with my doctor, but then decided I better go to the ER and get checked out. They did an EKG, blood test, and an x-ray but it all came out negative. The next day my doctor diagnosed it as muscle spasms in my back that were affecting nerves (resulting in the arm numbness). But he told me I did absolutely the right thing by going in to the ER. He has scheduled me for a stress test next month.

The English comedian Eric Morecambe died of a heart attack in 1984. This was when heart by-pass/angioplasty etc was in its infancy. I heard that nowadays it would have been quite easy to treat him and he would have lived for many years more.