Coronation Street’s shock Gail Platt storyline: Five heart attack signs women need to know

Coronation Street’s long-running character Gail Platt, now Rodwell, had a heart attack on Wednesday evening – with viewers left not understanding if she is going to survive.

The episode comes after Helen Worth, 73, who performs Rodwell, introduced she could be leaving the cleaning soap after 50 years within the function on the centre of the Platt household.

It noticed Carla Connor inform Gail’s son David and his companion Shona that she has made on supply on their home.

A row broke out between Jesse Chadwick, performed by John Thomson who has just lately returned to the cleaning soap, Gail’s daughter Sarah and David, as Gail snaps and urges her kids to depart the home.

Platt is seen breathless and clutching her left arm earlier than her companion Jesse Chadwick calls an ambulance.

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The scene has been welcomed by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), as ‘a fantastic moment to shout about heart health’.

June Davison, a BHF senior cardiac nurse, stresses that opposite to in style perception, women who’ve heart assaults expertise the identical key signs as males. “It’s still a misconception that there are differences between female symptoms and male symptoms of a heart attack, but we know now that isn’t the case,” she says.

Here’s what women need to know:

1.  Symptoms are the identical in women and males

The commonest heart attack signs, which differ from particular person to particular person and could also be skilled singly or together, are sudden chest ache or discomfort that will really feel like stress, tightness or squeezing, doesn’t go away, and will unfold to one or each arms, the neck, jaw, again or abdomen.

There may be shortness of breath or problem respiration with or with out chest discomfort; feeling dizzy, light-headed or faint; feeling or being sick or having indigestion; sweating or experiencing a chilly sweat; all of the sudden feeling nervousness related to a panic attack; coughing or wheezing.

Davison explains: “There’s a group of symptoms, and women and men can experience them equally.”

Indeed, 2019 Edinburgh University analysis, funded by the BHF, dispelled the long-held delusion that women have a tendency to endure uncommon or ‘atypical’ heart attack signs, emphasising the need for each sexes to recognise and act on the warning signs.

2.  Women typically don’t suppose they’re in danger

Heart assaults are nonetheless seen by many as a male drawback, and consequently, says Davison, one thing that some women suppose they don’t actually need to fear about. Yet the BHF says round 33,000 women within the UK are admitted to hospital due to a heart attack every year, and analysis suggests survival charges are decrease for women than for males.

“The issue is that women don’t necessarily see themselves as being at risk of a heart attack, so they’re more likely to delay asking for help or seeking treatment,” Davison explains.

But she warns that, similar to males, if women have threat elements like diabetes,  hypertension, excessive ldl cholesterol and/or an unhealthy life-style, similar to a poor weight loss plan or in the event that they smoke, they’re at larger threat of a heart attack.

“For women, the most important thing is to think about the fact that you are not immune to heart disease,” she stresses. “So if the risk factors apply to you, then you’re more likely to experience a heart problem.”

3.  Women are extra vulnerable to heart assaults after menopause

During and after menopause, women are at larger threat of getting a heart drawback, says Davison, who explains that that is thought to be as a result of oestrogen has a protecting impact on the heart.

“But during and after the menopause, you lose that oestrogen protectiveness, and then your risk of having a heart problem does dramatically increase,” she says. “And coupled with that, around that age, blood pressure is more likely to rise. So that’s a time to be bit more aware, and keep a closer eye on your health – check your blood pressure and cholesterol levels.”

4.  Diagnosis might take longer for women

Because women generally delay searching for assist with heart attack signs, their prognosis might take longer,  and additional Edinburgh University analysis suggests women obtain poorer heart attack therapy than males.

The BHF says women are 50% extra possible than a person to obtain the flawed preliminary prognosis for a heart attack, and Davison explains that as a result of women might delay searching for assist “they’re going to be slower to get diagnosed”.

And after they do search assist, “They’re more likely to be misdiagnosed, or there’s a delay in sending them for tests, and they’re less likely to receive optimal treatment.

“So we know that women tend to sometimes have worse outcomes than men.”

5. A heart attack may not be as dramatic as these proven on TV

Platt’s heart attack on Coronation Street doesn’t seem to be as dramatic as others you may need seen on display screen.

Davison stresses: “One thing’s for sure, heart attacks don’t always happen like they do on TV, with somebody dramatically clutching their chest in agony and collapsing onto the floor.

“One of the most common symptoms is chest pain, but it might just be a pressure or a tightness, aching, or heaviness, it’s not necessarily a real agony collapse on the floor. “

She says sometimes people have fairly subtle symptoms, perhaps thinking they’re having a bad episode of indigestion, feeling sick, having a panic attack, or generally feeling very unwell.

“There are a variety of symptoms, and that’s why we say if in doubt, please call 999,” she advises. “It’s much better to be to be reassured and for it to be a false alarm than to delay getting treatment for what sometimes is potentially a life-threatening condition.”