Arm And Chest Pain, Bypass Surgery, Taken Morphine And Nitro

Posted on Tue, 22 May 2012

Question: My dad is at emergency room and had pain in left arm and chest. He has had bypass surgery 10 years ago, heart XXXXXXX in October showed bypasses were good (4 of them). He was ding okay with them giving him 5 something of nitro. They gave him morphine when pain increased some and he began having tremendous episodes of crushing pain in chest. They increased nitro to 20' they just stare at him when he is hurting. They say ekg's are good. He keeps having the severe episodes. They were going to do XXXXXXX and when they learned he had one in October, changed to cat scan....don't know what do do for him, his heart doctor in another town, take him there

Answered by Dr. Dr. Rakhi Tayal (5 hours later)

Hello,

Thanks for your query.

Medically speaking, your father is having an attack of angina or ischaemia- decreased blood flow to the heart which is causing him pain.
As per the treatment, his EKG is normal means his heart is functioning alright with the help of nitroglycerine. The pain is experienced due to intermittent reduced blood supply to the heart which is being taken care of with the help of morphine which is one of the most effective pain killers.
So, there is not much that you can do to help him.
If you are too much concerned about the pain or discomfort he might have been feeling, you can ask his doctor to increase the dose of morphine.

I hope this information has been both informative and helpful for you. If there are additional concerns, I am available for your followups.

Regards,

Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar