Heart Attack

STAR JONES is a lawyer, author and celebrated TV personality who is perhaps best known for her larger-than-life personality and "tell it like it is" candidness. She once tipped the scales at more than 300 pounds, underwent gastric-bypass surgery 10 years ago and has maintained her weight loss. But in 2010, at age 47, she faced her biggest health crisis so far when she was diagnosed with heart disease and had open-heart surgery to repair her aortic valve. Now a proud spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, Star was in Philly recently as the keynote speaker at the 10th annual Go Red For Women Luncheon.

Chronic constipation, heart disease and death Q: I had always believed that Elvis Presley died at 42 from a heart attack. However, I've recently read that his longtime physician George Nichopoulos believes Elvis died from chronic constipation. How does someone die from that? A: According to the autopsy report, hypertensive cardiovascular disease and a "colon problem" were the likely contributing factors to his premature death from a heart attack. It has been reported by his now-retired personal physician that Elvis suffered for years from chronic constipation and that his colon was markedly distended at autopsy.

Heart disease in women Does a heart attack really feel like an elephant on your chest? Not always, particularly if you are a woman. A study last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that women, especially those under 45, were less likely than men to have chest pain before a heart attack. Symptoms can be more subtle: nausea, fatigue, shortness of breath, and discomfort in the neck or back. Subtlety can be dangerous: For both sexes, the absence of the classic chest ache was linked to delayed hospital trips, slower care and a higher death rate.

WCAU-TV (Channel 10) features reporter Sheela Allen-Stephens was in stable condition last night after suffering a heart attack in Atlantic City this weekend. Channel 10 news director Steve Doerr said yesterday that Allen-Stephens, 47, became ill Saturday evening while staying in an Atlantic City hotel with her husband, Channel 10 camerman Lonnie Stephens. At first, Doerr said, she thought it was indigestion, but the next morning she was admitted to Atlantic City Medical Center, where doctors diagnosed a heart attack.

Horsham Township Council President James Doherty was home relaxing this week and looking forward to returning to work after suffering a near fatal heart attack during the Memorial Day weekend. Doherty said earlier this week that when he traveled to his summer home in the Poconos several weeks ago, he was prepared for "a weekend of relaxation. " Instead, he suffered a "massive heart attack" while sawing limbs off of a fallen tree and ended up spending two weeks in the Mount Pocono Medical Center in East Stroudsburg.

Smith Kline & French Laboratories has agreed to become the exclusive U.S. distributor of a Swedish drug that has the potential to save thousands of heart attack victims. The drug, KabiKinase, is manufactured in Sweden by KabiVitrum AB of Stockholm - one of two world producers of the drug streptokinase, said Jeremy Heymsfeld, SmithKline Beckman spokesman. KabiVitrum is the smaller of the two producers, said Alan Wachter of Smith Kline & French Labs. Terms of the accord were not released, although executives of both firms may say more when they meet with reporters this morning in New York.

A 73-year-old Haycock Township man who died Wednesday after statepolice took him into custody suffered a heart attack, according to the BucksCounty Coroner's Office. State troopers at Dublin said they responded to an early morning call fromthe home of Richard L. Frick that was made to Bucks County 911 to investigatea "domestic disturbance. " Cpl. Rick Pendergrass said troopers arrived at the Camp Trail Road home at4:38 a.m. and saw Frick through his living-room window, holding a gun. He said the troopers ordered Frick out of the house and searched him forweapons outside his front door.

A Fire Department lieutenant was in critical condition last night after suffering a heart attack while battling a one-alarm fire in a North Philadelphia rowhouse. Stephen Murphy, 47, of Ladder Co. 1 at 1541 Parrish St., was admitted to Allegheny University Hospitals/Hahnemann, where an emergency procedure was performed to open a clogged artery and supply blood to his heart, authorities said. Murphy fell ill while fighting the 2:46 p.m. blaze on the 1500 block of North Garnet Street.

Stephen Naughton, the veteran Philadelphia police sergeant whose car plunged into the Schuylkill River Tuesday afternoon, died of a heart attack, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office ruled yesterday. Naughton, 55, died of acute myocardial infarction, with a secondary cause of death listed as drowning, office spokesman Jeff Moran said. The manner of death is listed as accidental. Naughton, a married father of two and 31-year veteran of the force, had just left work at Police Headquarters at 8th and Race streets and was headed to his home in the Andorra section of northwest Philadelphia.

STAR JONES is a lawyer, author and celebrated TV personality who is perhaps best known for her larger-than-life personality and "tell it like it is" candidness. She once tipped the scales at more than 300 pounds, underwent gastric-bypass surgery 10 years ago and has maintained her weight loss. But in 2010, at age 47, she faced her biggest health crisis so far when she was diagnosed with heart disease and had open-heart surgery to repair her aortic valve. Now a proud spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, Star was in Philly recently as the keynote speaker at the 10th annual Go Red For Women Luncheon.

Calvin G. Connett, 93, who retired as a Philadelphia regional sales manager for Pitney Bowes, the manufacturer of postage meters and computer software and hardware, died of a heart attack Monday, May 6, at his home in Cinnaminson, where he had lived since 1973. Born on Staten Island, N.Y., Mr. Connett worked for Pitney Bowes after graduating from high school. He served in the Army from May 1941 to November 1945, mostly in a supply unit. A son-in-law, John McElhinney, said Mr. Connett landed in France 10 days after D-Day and fought in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.

Eating fish is good for your heart, but taking fish-oil capsules does not help people at high risk of heart problems who are already taking medicines to prevent them, a large study in Italy found. The work makes clearer who does and does not benefit from taking supplements of the good oils found in fish such as salmon, tuna, and sardines. Previous studies have suggested that fish-oil capsules could lower heart risks in people with heart failure or who have already suffered a heart attack.

I can only imagine what happened when my father died unexpectedly of a heart attack just after midnight. We lived on a narrow street of two-story twins, and the ambulance lights must have spun red through the bedrooms that night. The uncharacteristic hubbub on our quiet block surely brought neighbors to their windows, if not their porches. I can only imagine, because I wasn't there. At the time, I was a sophomore at Temple University. After spending most of the day and evening at the Temple News, putting out our student daily, I had just returned to my dorm room when the call came.

DIOCESE OF HARRISBURG officials say Bishop Joseph McFadden died of a heart attack last week after suddenly falling ill while attending a meeting of the Catholic Bishops of Pennsylvania. McFadden, 65, died Thursday morning at Holy Redeemer Hospital in Huntingdon Valley. Officials say McFadden awoke feeling ill and was taken to a hospital. McFadden was an Overbrook native and well-known locally as a longtime coach and teacher in Philadelphia's Catholic school system. Church officials say McFadden's funeral is scheduled for Wednesday following several days of services.

SAN FRANCISCO - One of the scariest parts of bypass surgery - having your heart stopped and going on a heart-lung machine while doctors fix your clogged arteries - does not cause mental decline, as many people have feared, and is safe even in the elderly, two landmark studies show. Bypass surgery is one of the most common operations in the world. There is debate about the best way to do it, and patients often are given a choice. Usually doctors stop the heart to make it easier to connect new blood vessels to detour around blocked ones.

HOW DO WE prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes in the next five years? The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched the Million Hearts initiative in 2012 to answer this question. And it's as simple as the ABC'S: A spirin for risk reduction. B lood-pressure control. C holesterol-lowering. S moking cessation. Since February is Heart Month, this is a great time for Philadelphia to start working on its share of the goal - preventing 5,000 heart attacks and strokes among city residents by 2017.

TWO MEN - one 52, one 72 - entered Doylestown Hospital days apart this month, each suffering from chest pains. The younger man was found to have minor blockages in an artery and was told by Dr. Joseph McGarvey Jr., an interventional cardiologist, that he would need only medication and lifestyle changes. The older man had more serious blockages, and McGarvey swiftly scheduled him for bypass surgery. Both likely would have been treated differently just a few years ago. The younger man might have received an unnecessary stent, a tiny mesh tube to prop a vessel open.

BARBARA TAYLOR woke at 3 a.m. with chest pain and thought it might be indigestion. Then her jaw began to hurt, so she woke her husband, who took her to Doylestown Hospital. Taylor, 61, was having a heart attack, and she went to the hospital that is second-best in the country at keeping such patients alive, according to Medicare data from the federal government. The sooner a doctor performs angioplasty - using a tube called a catheter and a small balloon to open a blocked artery - the better.

FORMER ATHLETE-turned-restaurant manager Stephanie Varela, 29, attributed her sweating, shortness of breath and slight chest pains to the stress of hard work and rushing around. Neither she nor the paramedics would realize she was having a heart attack. It happened on a Saturday evening last September, the Philadelphia resident recalled recently. "I was on the phone trying to calm down an irate guest, and the minute I hung up, it felt like someone was sitting on my chest. I felt this stabbing pain in my shoulder that traveled down to my arm, elbow and finally to my fingers, which went numb.