Pins and needles were the sign Faith, 22, was having a ‘widow maker’ heart attack. And as she reveals, it’s not just the elderly or unfit who need to know what to look out for…
Driving back from a hockey match earlier this year, Faith Harrison was suddenly struck by strange tingly sensations in her arms that were so severe she had to pull off the road.
‘My left arm fell completely numb but at the same time I had pins and needles spread down my right arm,’ says Faith, 22, a fitness coach from Shropshire.
As she brought the car to a halt in a layby her condition quickly took a turn for the worse.
‘I developed a crushing tightness in my chest and that’s when a feeling of dark, impending doom suddenly came over me that seemed to say: “You’re going to die”.’
Faith spent a few minutes catching her breath and rubbing at her numb arms before deciding to continue with her drive to her parents’ house, which was closer than her own home.
Fitness coach Faith Harrison had no idea that the pins and needles in her arms were the first sign that she was having a heart attack
Faith, who has always kept herself healthy, then developed a ‘crushing tightness’ in her chest
‘I couldn’t work out what was going on, there was no obvious reason for me to feel this bad,’ she says.
And when she did later learn what the problem was, the diagnosis left her reeling – for despite her youth and fitness (at the time she was a semi-professional athlete), Faith was in fact having a heart attack.
It wasn’t just a minor one. A large clot had blocked one of the major blood vessels to her heart – a form of heart attack doctors refer to as a ‘widow maker’ due to its poor survival rates.
But Faith had no idea of the danger she was in as she sat in her car and decided to summons up her strength to drive on to her parents’ home.
By the time she arrived 45 minutes later, Faith was in such pain from her chest that she almost fell out of the car.
‘I could only walk around hunched over,’ she says.
‘Seeing me in this state, my dad rang 111 and they advised me to get to hospital as soon as possible.’
Faith recovering from her heart attack in the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford
Her dad bundled her into the car and took her to the nearby Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
‘I felt everything in me slowing down, as if my organs were closing down inside me,’ says Faith.
‘By the time we arrived I was so weak, I couldn’t speak – Dad spoke for me.’
She was swiftly given morphine for the pain and was rushed in for an ECG, a test that measures the electrical activity in the heart.
This revealed irregularities and abnormalities in her heart rhythm that showed she’d had a heart attack.
‘I heard: “Your daughter has had a heart attack” and I was terrified but felt hysterical: I was laughing one second, then crying the next.’
‘I couldn’t understand it – not only was I playing hockey at county level, I also did all kinds of other sports and went to the gym several times a week – I could lift 100kg deadweight.’
Faith was put into an ambulance and blue-lighted to the Royal Stoke University Hospital for surgery to remove the clot.
‘My dad was crying as I was wheeled to theatre,’ recalls Faith.
While she was awake under a local anaesthetic, doctors went into retrieve the clot via a vein in her wrist.
Doctors said it was a ‘miracle’ that Faith survived – she now wants to send out a warning that even super-fit people can have heart attacks
She recalls: ‘It turned out my left ascending artery – the biggest of the heart’s blood vessels – was 99 per cent blocked with a clot. I saw it as they removed it – it was a long, long snake of blood and other tissue.
‘The doctor later told me this kind of huge heart attack was called the widow maker because only 12 per cent of those who have it survive.’
Faith spent three days in hospital after the attack in January this year and has been slowly recovering since.
‘Doctors told me I was a “miracle” and “shouldn’t be here”,’ she says.
In June, Faith had surgery to close a ‘flap’ they found in her heart called a patent foramen ovale – this is an opening between the left and right atria, the upper chambers of the heart: this can allow clots to move from the right to the left side of the heart, and can lead to stroke and heart attack.
This however hadn’t caused Faith’s blood clot.
‘They discovered I also had a rare blood disorder,’ she says. ‘Now I take four different medications (spironolactone, ramipril, apixaban and bisoprolol) to reduce my risk of another blood clot and heart attack.
‘I’ve had to stop most sports and weightlifting as I’m left with heart failure [where the heart can’t pump as efficiently]. I can no longer play hockey, but have trained as a Pilates instructor and coach fitness online.
‘I want to tell other people not to believe that only old men get heart attacks – even super fit people can too.’
For more information, visit bhf.org
What it means when you have pins and needles
Just about everyone will have had pins and needles at some point – even reportedly Taylor Swift, who apologised to her fans at the first gig she played in Edinburgh as part of her sell-out Eras tour earlier in the summer, when her right hand temporarily went into spasm.
While typically it passes in minutes or even seconds, in some cases it can be a sign of an under-lying problem – even as in Faith’s case, a sign of a heart attack, or multiple sclerosis (MS).
Known medically as parasthesia, pins and needles can cause tingling and numbness (your limb feels like it’s ‘going to sleep’) or a crawling sensation anywhere from the arms, hands, and toes to the tongue and lips, says Dame Professor Clare Gerada, a GP based in South London and past president of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
‘Limbs freeze and start tingling when the blood supply to a limb or body part is temporarily interrupted, for example because you have been sitting in an awkward position,’ she says.
‘Pressing on a nerve can reduce the blood supply to it and this then interferes with the way that nerves transmit messages to the brain.
‘The nerves react to their distress by sending signals that cause an unpleasant, even painful, tingling sensation.’
In the case of a heart attack, pins and needles can occur as blockages in the heart’s main blood supply means flow to the arms may be reduced, causing tingling and numbness down one arm or the other.
‘Cardiac pain can radiate [spread] to either arm but is usually felt as a heavy feeling predominantly in the upper arm,’ explains Chris Pepper, a consultant cardiologist and clinical director of Cardio-Respiratory Clinical Service Unit at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals.
Pins and needles can be a sign of other medical conditions – as we explain here:
PINS AND NEEDLES ANYWHERE IN THE BODY
POSSIBLE CAUSE: Vitamin B12 deficiency
Pins and needles can be a sign of a lack of vitamin B12, especially if you are vegan.
The vitamin is crucial for a healthy nervous system, helping produce a substance called myelin that shields the nerves and helps them transmit sensations – and shortfall can result in tingling or pins and needles in the hands, arms, legs or feet.
‘The human body does not create vitamin B12, so people must get this nutrient from their diet,’ says Dr Linia Patel, a specialist sports dietitian based in London.
‘It is naturally present in animal-based foods, such as red meat, poultry, eggs, dairy, and fish.
‘Plant foods are now fortified with the vitamin, meaning vegetarian and vegan sources of B12 can include fortified cereals, plant milks, bread, and nutritional yeast.’
She adds that long-term vegans and older people – who may not absorb the vitamin as easily – should be encouraged to consume B12 fortified foods or to take supplements.
NUMBNESS IN THE HANDS AND FEET
POSSIBLE CAUSE: Peripheral arterial disease
As we get older, our circulation naturally becomes less efficient, often as a result of conditions such as peripheral arterial disease (PAD), where a build-up of fatty deposits in the arteries restricts blood supply to leg muscles.
Without a good supply of oxygenated blood and nutrients, nerves start misfiring, leading to pins and needles and numbness.
According to the British Heart Foundation, about one in five people over 60 in the UK have some degree of PAD. Other symptoms may include ulcers and coldness in the feet.
‘Peripheral vascular disease, a slow and progressive circulation disorder which can cause sausage-like fingers, can also cause symptoms including intermittent pain, ‘coldness’ of the affected body part, numbness and pins and needles,’ adds Professor Gerada.
NUMBNESS ON THE UNDERSIDE OF YOUR FEET
POSSIBLE CAUSE: Diabetes
According to Diabetes UK, around half of people with diabetes have neuropathy, damage to small nerves which can lead to numbness and tingling.
This comes about due to high blood sugar, which can damage blood vessels that supply the nerves, says Douglas Twenefour, head of care at Diabetes UK.
‘This stops essential nutrients reaching the nerves. As a result, the nerve fibres can become damaged, and they may disappear.
‘This can cause problems in many different parts of your body, depending on the type of nerve affected.’
Once the nerves have been damaged they cannot repair themselves, ‘but while diabetic neuropathy can’t be reversed, the symptoms can be treated’, he adds.
Nerves in your feet should be checked to see that they are still responsive to stimuli and working properly, using a pin-prick test or strand test (when a light strand is brushed against the skin of your foot), during your routine annual diabetes check-up.
PINS AND NEEDLES IN THE LEGS OR WRIST
POSSIBLE CAUSE: An effect of being pregnant
Pins and needles are common in the later stages of pregnancy, as the body changes to accommodate the growing baby and prepares for birth.
‘As your uterus grows, it may press on the nerves in your legs,’ says Dr Lucy Lord, a consultant gynaecologist at the Central Health Clinic in London.
This may cause some numbness and tingling, in your legs and toes, which may linger in the weeks and even months after birth.
You may also have numbness or tingling in your fingers and hands due to fluid build-up.
The body retains fluid during pregnancy to support the growing baby, but some of this fluid may collect in the carpal tunnel (an inch-wide passage in the wrist), placing pressure on the median nerve which runs from the forearm to the hand – resulting in tingling and numbness in hands and fingers.
Around six in ten pregnant women may experience symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.
‘Avoiding or taking frequent breaks from activities that make your symptoms worse can help,’ says Dr Lord.
Wearing a wrist splint at night to keep your wrist in a good position and relieve pressure on the nerve may also be beneficial. You can buy these from larger pharmacies or online. You will need to wear it at night for at least four weeks for it to start feeling better, says Dr Lord.
TICKLING SENSATION OR SHOOTING PAIN IN THE LEGS
POSSIBLE CAUSE: Multiple sclerosis
Tingling in the legs, feet and hands can be a sign of multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks the protective myelin covering of nerves, which can lead to nerve damage and pins and needles-like sensation.
‘Sometimes it may feel like pins and needles or a tickle,’ says Dr Amanda Howarth, a senior lecturer in the Department of Nursing at Sheffield Hallam University.
But it can also lead to ‘stabbing, shooting and tingling pains,’ and the sensations may be constant or they can come and go, she adds.
‘These can occur in various parts of their body – often in their legs, feet, hands and arms.’
Around one in 450 people in England has the condition, with 150,000 people in the UK living with the disease.
TINGLING AROUND THE FACE
POSSIBLE CAUSE: Anxiety
If you develop a ‘tingly sensation or pins and needles, spreading across your cheeks, jawline, or even around the eyes and nose, it might well be anxiety related,’ says Olivia Dornan, a therapist at Priory Hospital Barnt Green in Worcestershire.
The face has a dense system of blood vessels supplying multiple muscles throughout the face which create expressions and movement.
‘When we are anxious, our bodies release high levels of [the hormone] cortisol, which increases blood supply to the major organs but restricts blood to the smaller peripheral blood vessels such as those in the face,’ she says.
‘Many of my patients with anxiety experience pins and needles alongside numbness in the face and scalp, during periods of high anxiety especially.’ The sensation usually eases within minutes.
Arrhythmias, irregular heartbeats, don’t themselves cause pins and needles but they can lead to anxiety which in turn can result in pins and needles, often in the fingers or around the mouth, adds Dr Pepper.
