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Basic Trope: A character has a heart attack that's very fast and involves chest pain and usually pain or numbness in the left arm.

  • Straight: Alice is going about her business, when she suddenly complains that her left arm is numb and seconds later, starts clutching her chest and gasping, then passes out. We cut to her in the hospital, where the doctor explains it was a heart attack.
  • Exaggerated: Alice drops to her knees with all sorts of Milking the Giant Cow theatrics before immediately dying.
  • Downplayed: Alice develops numbness in her left arm and mild chest pain, then an hour or so later has the stereotypical chest-clutching fit.
  • Justified: Well, heart attacks can happen this way.
  • Inverted: Alice's heart attack has no symptoms whatsoever.
  • Subverted: Alice complains of a numb left arm and chest pain... which turn out to be pins and needles and indigestion respectively.
  • Double Subverted: Later on, however, she does have a heart attack, complete with all the stereotypical symptoms.
  • Parodied: Alice fears having a heart attack every time her arm feels numb, even when she's been sleeping on it.
  • Zig-Zagged: Alice and Bob both have heart attacks, and Bob has a numb left arm, gasps, and clutches his chest, while Alice feels dizzy and nauseated.
  • Averted:
    • Alice has a heart attack, but the symptoms are night-terrors, heartburn, nausea, and dizziness.
    • Alice does not have a heart attack.
  • Enforced: The creator doesn't know how heart attacks work.
  • Lampshaded: "Ugh! My... left... arm... hurts... and... so... does... my... chest—*(passes out)*"
  • Invoked: ???
  • Exploited: ???
  • Defied: Alice manages to take her heart attack medicine before passing out.
  • Discussed: "So, when you have a heart attack, do you really gasp and clutch your chest or is that only in movies?"
  • Conversed: "I mean, heart attacks can happen that way, but it becomes kind of unrealistic when everybody has the same symptoms— especially the women, who in real life often just feel dizzy and sick."
  • Implied: Alice is seen gasping and clutching her chest, then passing out, but her condition is unstated.
  • Deconstructed: ???
  • Reconstructed: ???
  • Played for Laughs: ???
  • Played for Drama: Alice ends up dying from the heart attack.
  • Played for Horror: A demon curses everyone with heart attacks, and they all clutch their chests and collapse.

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