The following story and questions are designed to stimulate critical thinking through class
discussion or as a brief essay response. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions.
Randi Marchant, a 42-year-old waitress, was vacuuming the family room when she felt that painful
squeezing in her chest again. This was the third time today, but this one really hurt. She sat down to
catch her breath and stubbed out the cigarette she had left smoldering in the half-filled ashtray by
the couch. Randi’s husband, Jimmy, and stepdaughter Melonie had pestered her until she finally
had taken time off work to see her doctor. Dr. Harris found that her blood pressure was 158/88—
probably owing to the noon rush stress at work, she rationalized. At least her cholesterol test was
only 30 points above average this time. It had been slowly coming down, even though she cheated
on her diet.
Another wave of pain tightened its icy fingers around her heart, and the pain moved up into both
sides of her jaw. Randi thought, “Probably just a little heartburn. Since the pain doesn’t radiate down
my left arm, it couldn’t be my heart, could it?”
“Don’t think about the pain,” she told herself. “Think of something else. Melonie’s prom dress needs
altering.” Randi fell to the floor, clutching her chest, just as Melonie walked in. She saw her
stepmother slumped on the floor and screamed, “Oh my God! Help, somebody, help!”
In developing your paper, include answers to the following questions:
- What information in the story indicates that Randi might be a candidate for heart disease?
- Discuss why Randi thought this was not a heart attack.
- What can Melonie do immediately to try to save Randi’s life?
- Assuming that Randi is suffering a myocardial infarction, discuss why it is important that she
receive appropriate treatment quickly
Sample Solution