Is it a Heart Attack or a Snow-Shoveling Injury?

I was the doctor on call for my internal medicine practice one February week many years ago. It had been bitter cold, unusually snowy, and crazy busy.

I got a page from a patient (we’ll call her Ms. Jones): “I’m sorry to bother you on a Sunday morning, but I’m having some chest pains, after shoveling my driveway.”

I’d been catching up on charting, but hearing her say the words “chest pains” and “shoveling” in the same sentence snapped me right to full attention.

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