one-half of people with coronary heart disease are stricken unexpectedly with a heart attack, a myocdi infction. faxon: but it's very clear that when a heart attack occurs, that heart muscle starts to die almost as soon as it occludes. within five or ten minutes of that occlusion, it starts to die. it dies slowly and progressively over a period of time. that's what a heart attacis-- the death of that muscle. an infarction is an area of heart muscle that dies because it doesn't receive enough oxygen due to insufficient blood. hyunah lee poa: if a person does not recognize they're having a heart attack, they're losing precious time to seek out treatment, and especially nowadays, where it's been encouraged that every hour counts that you really try to start treatment of a heart attack or stroke within the first few hours, every hour counts. i mean, we're all human, and we obviously... when we get a symptom that's severe, we kind of want to wait, and maybe it'll go away, and maybe it's indigestion, and maybe something... i don't need to worry about it. so, we have a natural tendency not to want to