‘The Voice’ musician from SWFL speaks about heart attacks

Reporter: Taylor Wirtz Writer: Johnathan Minehan
Published: Updated:

Five years ago, Ben Allen was competing in the competitive singing series “The Voice.”

“I had a great time doing the show. Three chairs turned for me. I was on Blake Shelton’s team. Then later on, I was on Gwen Stefani’s team,” said Ben Allen.

Nowadays, the Southwest Florida musician spends his time touring the country with the Ben Allen band.

“My band and I play about 100 to 105 shows a year,” said Allen.

The 47-year-old never stopped until he had to, two days after Christmas.

“I had been riding a dirt bike all day. I’m a pretty active guy. My back starts hurting really bad, and I’m thinking that I have pinched a nerve in my back,” said Allen.

Allen continued to think it was a pinched nerve, even when his chest cavity started hurting. His arms were burning, his fingertips were tingling, and he started sweating and hyperventilating.

“This pain is the worst I’ve ever had. This is the pain response. My wife says we’re going to the emergency room,” said Allen.

Despite his insistence that it was a pinched nerve, doctors came to a different conclusion.

“It was my heart. I had a heart attack,” said Allen.

His cardiologist, Dr. Jose Sosa with Lee Health, said Allen’s decision to go to the ER was critical.

Sosa said if he hadn’t gone to the hospital, there would have been a chance Allen could have died.

Sosa wants others to be aware that younger people can have heart attacks, and they might not look like your textbook symptoms.

“Many patients with a heart attack, they have chest pain, which is a classic symptom, but also atypical symptoms like heartburn, sweat, some of them may have lightheadedness, palpitations or arrhythmias,” said Dr. Sosa. “All the way from indigestion all the way to back pain, pain radiating to the neck, and they may not think that their symptoms are actually coming from their heart.”

Despite Allen being young and in shape, Sosa said his family history with heart problems may have been a clue of what was to come.

“We’ve seen a lot of people who are basically genetically predisposed to have a heart attack in their 30s and also in their 40s,” said Sosa.

Allen’s advice is simple: If you have any symptoms that seem extreme and out of the ordinary, go to the hospital.

“They say not going is what kills the most people—not going in the right amount of time, so I just want to encourage everybody to go,” said Allen.

The American Heart Association says it matches up with recent trends.

“We are seeing younger generation, nontraditional, that you think of also having heart attack issues, having cardiac arrest issues,” said Tracy Duhaney, a member of SWFL Chairman’s Board of Directors of the American Heart Association.

If you want to check your risk level, Sosa says you should talk to your doctor about tests that may be able to tell you more.

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