title: [A heart attack: was the patient lucky or unlucky? Circumstances were favourable but outcome ill-fated].
abstract: The assessment of signs and symptoms in primary care is an important but difficult task for general practitioners (GPs) who have to decide whether symptoms require immediate action or rather a watchful waiting approach. However, the GP may sometimes just need a bit of luck. This case report describes how the doctor's luck (in taking the initiative to phone the patient shortly after discharge from a hospital where he had undergone surgery on two coronary vessels) and the luck of the patient (a subsequent cardiac arrest at the GP's office) results in an unsuccessful out-of-hospital resuscitation. Based on our analysis of the literature on the prevalence of cardiac arrests and the outcome of out-of-hospital resuscitation, we will leave it up to the readers to decide whether our patient had been lucky or unlucky.
authors.affiliation: UMC St Radboud, afd. Eerstelijnsgeneeskunde, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. t.oldehartman@elg.umcn.nl
authors.forename: Tim C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: olde Hartman
authors.forename: Hiske
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: van Ravesteijn
authors.forename: Peter  L
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lucassen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation; D005194:Family Practice; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D058687:Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest / Q000628:therapy*