Umair Qadeer was on his daily walk when he realized he was running late for his son’s pediatrician’s appointment. He hopped on a Citi Bike to get home quicker. As he walked up the stairs to his apartment, he felt pressure in his chest.

“It just kept getting worse,” Qadeer, 44, of Queens, New York, tells TODAY.com. “Every time I took a breath, I would feel a bit of a change in my chest.”

Eventually, Qadeer called an ambulance and went to Mount Sinai Queens, where he learned he was having a widow maker heart attack. He was able to receive a quick intervention for his medical emergency.

“I’m generally a health guy,” Qadeer says. “Having a heart attack was completely unexpected and shocking.”

Avid Walker Who Regularly Saw the Doctor

Most months, Qadeer walks upwards of 100 miles — what he calls “urban hiking.” He knew he had a family history of high cholesterol, so he visited a cardiologist in early 2024 to make sure everything was OK. He felt relieved when the doctor told him he was healthy.

“He basically told me at the end that everything looked great,” Qadeer says. “He said, ‘Clean as a whistle.’”

Since having a widow maker heart attack, Umair Qadeer discovered he's able to stay calm in emergencies, and he no longer takes anything for granted. (Courtesy Umair Qadeer)

Qadeer even asked about his cholesterol and if he needed medication because he knew that it was genetically driven, but the doctor said they could just monitor him closely to determine if he needs a prescription at a later time.

“I was feeling pretty good,” he says. “I was expecting some plaque build-up in my arteries because I always had high cholesterol, but the doctor said, no everything looks good.”

In November, though, when Qadeer first felt the chest pain, he wondered if he was simply anxious.

“I thought maybe I’m having a panic attack, and I’m going to be one of those guys calling an ambulance for a panic attack, and it’s going to be a joke in the family,” he says.

The pain started radiating down his left arm, and he couldn’t get comfortable. He tried sitting and lying down but the pain continued.

“I was coherent,” he says. "But I was unable to hold a conversation because it was just so uncomfortable.”

His wife called 911, and luckily an ambulance was nearby to get him.

“En route to the hospital, the paramedic told me I was having a heart attack,” he says. “I was trying to stay calm.”

He worried that the anxiety he felt from having a heart attack would make the heart attack worse. The ambulance informed the hospital that a heart attack patient was arriving, which thanks to an app, alerted the staff in the cardiac catheterization lab to be prepared.

“Once I got to the hospital, it was very much like the movies,” Qadeer says. “It was me being wheeled on a stretcher from room to room and lots of machines beeping and whirring.”

An angiogram revealed a “gigantic clot” was blocking 100% of Qadeer's left anterior descending artery, triggering a widow maker heart attack, Dr. Jonathan Murphy, an interventional cardiologist at Mount Sinai Queens, tells TODAY.com.

“I didn’t expect anything this serious to be happening,” Qadeer says. “I just recently found out that there was a 100% block.”

After detecting the obstruction, doctors placed a stent into the artery to open it up.

“I literally felt a pinch in my heart when the stent went in,” he says. “It was also immense relief ... like if you’ve been holding your breath for a really long time and you finally are able to take a deep breath.”

Widow Maker Heart Attacks

When something completely blocks the left anterior descending artery, doctors consider it an “emergency situation.” This severe type of heart attack is colloquially known as a widow maker, because of how deadly it can be.

“You want to get that open as quickly as you possibly can in order to save as much heart muscle as you can,” Murphy says. “Because we had the whole team ready, we got the artery open within less than 60 minutes of (his arrival).”

Umair Qadeer thought he was having a panic attack. It was a widow maker heart attack. (Courtesy Umair Qadeer)

While chest pain is the most commonly known sign of a heart attack, there are other symptoms associated with it, including:

Shortness of breath

Sweating

Nausea

Pain in the left arm

Pain on the right side of the chest

“There can be lots of different presentations,” Murphy says. “If it’s something that’s persistent, especially if it’s something that gets worst with exertion, those are red flags.”

Murphy says people experiencing worrisome symptoms should seek medical care quickly.

“It’s always better to have people with the capability to treat you medically as soon a possible,” he says. “The advice would be if you’re concerned, just call an ambulance.”

Murphy anticipates that Qadeer's health will rebound thanks to the prompt treatment he received.

“I strongly believe that with the input of cardiologist and a small number of medications, we can return his risk for recurrent events essentially back to a normal person, so back to a population baseline,” Murphy says. “He can expect essentially a fully normal life.”

No Longer ‘Sweating the Small Stuff’

After two days in the hospital, Qadeer was released.

“I did walk home from the hospital, so that was a nice (measure) of my success,” he says. “If I walked at my normal pace for like a block, I would start feeling a bit of pressure and would slow down.”

About a month after his procedure, Qadeer could walk at his normal pace without any chest pressure or sensations — though, he still worried.

Umair Qadeer thought he was having a panic attack. It was a widow maker heart attack. (Courtesy Umair Qadeer)

“Every time I felt even a slight pain or slight pressure in my chest or difficulty breathing, I would immediately stop,” he says. “All the alarms were going off like, ‘Oh my God, is it happening again?’ That was a big part of it, the psychological impact.”

As time has passed, Qadeer feels better. He’s taking several new medications and has returned to his urban hikes.

After having a heart attack, Qadeer has a new perspective on life and is no longer “sweating the small stuff,” he says. He hopes his story encourages people to be seek help when they need it.

“I’m definitely an advocate now for being proactive about your health,” he says. “I’m not taking things for granted anymore.”