Hollywood Responsible For Misguiding Viewers About Strokes

Cinematic depiction of heart attacks in Hollywood movies is a cause of ignorance among people regarding strokes. Collapsing and grabbing your chest in agony are in reality misleading signs of heart attacks. The influence of such acting has got people to overlook mild chest pains that could be fatal.

For example when people see scenes such as Jack Nicholson's attack in Something's Gotta Give, or Vito from The Godfather dying in his tomato garden while playing with his grandson, or even Homer Simpson in the cult cartoon series, it gives them an impression of what its like to suffer a heart attack.

In fact, four of ten people are convinced that the heart attacks they watch on TV and movies are very realistic. This makes them ignore chest pains that are mild.

According to the British Health Foundation, in reality, heart attacks are chest pains that can be so mild, they are extremely easy to overlook.

It is alarming to know that out of the 250,000 people that suffer heart attacks, one third die because they tend to wait the pain out. On an average people wait for almost 90 minutes before seeking medical attention immediately.

According to doctors, people who receive treatment within the first hour have greater survival chances than people whose treatment begin after four to six hours after the symptoms appear.

A poll conducted by YouGov found the following statistics. Four out of ten people took advice on heart attacks from TV and movies. One in five people questioned did not know the symptoms of a heart attack. Besides this only six percent have sought advice or discussed their ignorance with their GP.

Classic signs of a stroke include central chest pain, which may spread down the arms or into the neck and jaw. Some people also feeling sick and sweaty and some suffer shortness of breath.

Unusual symptoms include a dull pain, achy or heavy feeling in the chest, a mild discomfort in the chest which makes you feel unwell, or the pain may spread to the back or stomach. Some people also say it feels like a bout of bad indigestion and others feel light-headed and dizzy along with the pain.

Marian Sherry, who recently had a heart attack, calls her a victim of television misguidance. She agrees that her stroke was nothing like what she’s used to seeing on television. She quoted. "I was really surprised to find out I'd had a heart attack because they always show people on television shows like Coronation Street keeling over but my experience wasn't anything like that. I just had a tight feeling across my chest and some pain up my arms but fortunately I got help in time."

Betty McBride, Director of Policy and Communications at the BHF says her team is making a strong attempt to demonstrate realistically what it is like to have a heart attack through a ground breaking film called “Watch Your Own Heart Attack.”

She says, "We need to get the message out there that heart attacks on the silver screen and TV aren't what people usually experience. People need to know the true story. It could be the most important two minutes of television you ever see."

The groundbreaking film will be aired on Sunday the 10th of August on ITV1.