VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — "It's just all of a sudden, bam! It hits you." That's how Clinton Carawan of Virginia Beach described his recent heart attack.
He says he's truly grateful to be alive. Dr. Deepak Talreja, Chief of Cardiology for Sentara Health, was one of the doctors who treated him.
"He had just had a massive cardiac arrest. When someone has a heart attack, it can be instantaneous. They can have a cholesterol blockage that they don't even know about. It's not causing any symptoms or anything else, and then suddenly, a blood clot forms right inside that artery and immediately, blood flow is blocked."
Clinton had multiple blockages, including one artery that was 100% blocked.
"That's what caused the heart attack. In fact, the blockage he had, we have a name for — that's called the 'widowmaker blockage,'" said Dr. Talreja.
Fortunately, Clinton's 11-year-old daughter Vada was there when it happened and performed CPR.
"I was just like, 'I need to save my dad's life. That's the main focus right now. Chest compressions — I need to do it. Once the EMT comes, then I can break down in tears,'" she recalled.
Watch: Extended interview with Vada Carawan about saving her dad's life
Dr. Talreja said Vada's intervention saved his life. She performed CPR until paramedics arrived and rushed him to Sentara Virginia Beach General. He was then transferred to Sentara's Heart Hospital in Norfolk to get his blockages cleared out.
Several weeks later, Clinton says he's feeling good.
"I'm going to cardio rehab, so that's kind of wearing me out a little bit, but I got to build my heart back up."
However, before he went into cardiac arrest, there were no major signs indicating that Clinton could have a heart attack.
"I didn't have any major symptoms before, so I never got checked out," he shared.
According to Dr. Talreja, that is not uncommon.
"This is the tragedy of heart diseases. Most folks that have sudden cardiac death had no symptoms in the 24 or 48 hours before it," he explained.
Watch: Extended interview with Clinton Carawan
I asked him: What's the greatest cause of blockages?
"So probably, the two things you would really look at are your genes. Some people are born with a history of family members who've had heart attacks and they're at higher risk," says Dr. Talreja.
Clinton acknowledges he has a family history of heart disease, but it's more extensive than he had previously thought.
"Yes, on my father's side. I knew he had a heart attack when he was, like, 32. He's got two brothers, and I didn't know this till the other day, but they also had heart attacks," he shared.
Dr. Talreja says in addition to being aware of your family history, there's something else to pay attention to: "The second thing is really lifestyle: smoking, sedentary lifestyles, poor dietary patterns, all those things contribute."
Clinton stresses that he's made adjustments to his lifestyle. He quit smoking cigarettes, which he says wasn't too challenging after the harrowing ordeal.
"[It was] pretty easy after waking up from your death bed. That was pretty easy. I don't have any urge for it, and if I do, I just think about laying in that bed. I don't ever want to be there again," he shared.
He's made other adjustments too, especially when it comes to his diet.
"I was eating a lot of red meat, hamburger and steak and stuff like that. And now I'm kind of pushing the red meat away and eating more chicken and vegetables," he said.
Watch related: Norfolk woman saves stranger with CPR
Vada was able to perform CPR on her dad because she had taken a training course through her Girl Scouts troop.
Dr. Talreja walked me through the process, explaining, "The guidelines have gotten more and more simple now. Breathing, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is not the key. The key is delivering force to the front of the chest."
For the sake of my story and to get a visual of how to do this, I laid down on the floor in an exam room for a mock demonstration.
"You've gone down... First, I'm going to feel your pulse... If I didn't [feel a pulse], then I would feel your sternum bone — I would go to just the middle of the chest region, and I would take my hands, clasp them, and push like this," said Dr. Talreja as he demonstrated. "We would push in about a centimeter and you're really pushing in pretty deep. When you're pushing, it's hard pushing."
To get the compression rates right, it's suggested that one of the songs you might sing is the Bee Gees' "Stayin Alive," which has a tempo of about 104 beats per minute.
"Yes, and that is actually one of the things we recommend now. That gives you the pace. Now, you have to sing it at the right pace," Dr. Talreja explained.
To see that demo, watch the video below.
Dr. Talreja stresses that it's not uncommon to crack a rib when performing CPR, but don't let that frighten you from doing it correctly.
"You almost don't have to worry about doing it too hard. Most people, 99% of people, if anything, do it too soft. So that's why we say that depth of about half an inch to an inch is what you're trying to achieve, and pushing down on that chest," he explained.
