what is the typical amount of time spent in the hospital following a heart attack?

Answer 1

That varies on the amount of damage from the heart attack and the persons overall health before hand. Most cardiologists will do serial cardiac enzyme tests over a couple of days. Afterwards it depends on follow-up EKG's and other tests. They may want to do a heart cath also. So as i said it depends on the person and the severity of the heart attack.

Answer 2

If you have a heart attack and there is a single artery or two that can be fixed by angioplasty, then you can be discharged after a couple of days. Typically you will have the procedure immediately and you will be observed over the next two days to stablize your medical regimen and to make sure you are not going to have life threatening heart rhythms. Assuming you don't you can go home to further recover. That is not to say because you are not in the hospital that you are perfectly well either. Give yourself a good four to six weeks to recover. You can start with gentle activity almost immediately (walking) but do not over do it at first. After six weeks you can start engaging in more vigorous activity.

If you have other complications, require special medication because your heart was in cardiogenic shock or a heart pump, then you can add days to that. If you require a bypass then you can add another two weeks or so.

In sum every case is different, so there is no real such thing as a typical. A couple days is common, though it is variable based on the patient's progress.

Answer 3

iy depends on severiety

Answer 4

it varies w/ the individual.