The heart attack may be large enough to lead to sudden death, and, unfortunately, many patients do not make it to hospital alive. Within minutes of the critical blockage occurring, the heart muscle stops working, and if blood flow is not restored within minutes to hours, the muscle typically dies.

As far as heart attacks go, this is a big one, with big consequences if not dealt with appropriately it’s why we take it so seriously.Ī heart attack generally occurs when there is a critical blockage in one or more of the arteries that supply the heart muscle with blood. This essentially means that the whole front wall of the heart goes down. (The medical term for this is a proximal LAD lesion.) No one knows exactly who came up with the term, but the reason they did is likely that if that artery is blocked right at the beginning of its course, then the whole artery after it goes down. When the main artery down the front of the heart (LAD) is totally blocked or has a critical blockage, right at the beginning of the vessel, it is known as the Widow Maker.

On the left side, which is the main side, we have the left anterior descending (LAD) that runs down the front of the heart and supplies the front and main wall, and then the left circumflex that supplies the side wall. The one on the right is known as the right coronary. There are three arteries that run over the surface of the heart and supply it with blood (see the diagram above.) There is one artery on the right side and two arteries on the left side of the heart. To understand this better, make sure you also read ‘Did That Stent Save My Life?’ and ‘Should I Take An Aspirin Every Day?’. No one wants to be dealing with something known as a Widow Maker! In this article, we will briefly review the blood supply to the heart, what happens in a heart attack, and an accurate definition the widow maker heart attack in order to gain a better understanding of the term the Widow Maker. People often refer to heart attacks as widow makers inaccurately, which generates a great deal of anxiety. I often hear the term “Widowmaker” from patients or their families who want to know if this is the type of heart attack they’re dealing with. Follow Dr Ahmed on Twitter an interventional cardiologist, a large part of my job is dealing with heart attacks and fixing the blocked arteries that cause them. Now our authors are keeping readers up to date with essential information through twitter. At, we’ve helped millions of people through our articles and answers.

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