A heart attack, scientifically referred to as myocardial infarction, (AUDIO: Immortal Beloved [+]Loading...["Immortal Beloved (audio story)"], The Yes Men [+]Loading...["The Yes Men (audio story)"]) was a condition affecting certain individuals of humanoid species.
As the Eighth Doctor noted: "Humans only have one heart, so it's perilously easy to bung it up". (AUDIO: Immortal Beloved [+]Loading...["Immortal Beloved (audio story)"])
In the 1840s, when a tenant farmer tried to flatten the tumulus on Lanyon Moor, he dropped dead of a heart attack. (AUDIO: The Spectre of Lanyon Moor [+]Loading...["The Spectre of Lanyon Moor (audio story)"])
The Seventh Doctor, who, being Gallifreyan, had a binary vascular system, once had a "one-sided" heart attack. (PROSE: So Vile a Sin [+]Loading...["So Vile a Sin (novel)"])
Ben Jackson's father died of a heart attack. (AUDIO: The Yes Men [+]Loading...["The Yes Men (audio story)"])
Charles Kettering diagnosed the cause of Arthur Linwood's death as a heart attack, but the Third Doctor doubted this. (TV: The Mind of Evil [+]Loading...["The Mind of Evil (TV story)"])
In 2003, John Hartman suffered a heart attack at his desk and died. (AUDIO: The Rockery [+]Loading...["The Rockery (audio story)"])
In 2011, Geraint Cooper suffered from a series of heart attacks. (TV: The New World [+]Loading...["The New World (TV story)"], The Categories of Life [+]Loading...["The Categories of Life (TV story)"])
By 2015, Griffith had survived five heart attacks. (AUDIO: Forgotten Lives [+]Loading...["Forgotten Lives (audio story)"])
On the night of 14 October 2016, April MacLean suffered a form of heart attack at the Coal Hill Academy Autumn Prom when Corakinus was trying to locate her. (TV: For Tonight We Might Die [+]Loading...["For Tonight We Might Die (TV story)"])
Evelyn Smythe had a heart attack shortly before meeting the Doctor. (AUDIO: Project: Lazarus [+]Loading...["Project Lazarus (audio story)","Project: Lazarus"])
Don had a heart attack after finishing his last game of cricket. (AUDIO: Autumn [+]Loading...["Autumn (audio story)"])
Colin Colchester-Price told Jane Colchester that her brother had died of a heart attack at a roundabout. (AUDIO: Future Pain [+]Loading...["Future Pain (audio story)"])
The victims of the Foretold suffered a heart attack after the Foretold sucked out the energy from their cells. (TV: Mummy on the Orient Express [+]Loading...["Mummy on the Orient Express (TV story)"])
The final stage of infection by parasitic Rempaths was a fit of rage, which resulted in a fatal heart attack. (PROSE: In the Blood [+]Loading...["In the Blood (novel)"])
Jackie Tyler's father, Prentice, died from a heart attack in 1997. (TV: Army of Ghosts [+]Loading...["Army of Ghosts (TV story)"])
The Galaxipedia had an article on "myocardial infarction"; it said that in the event known as Psychedelia Mors Voluntaria, what was thought to be all of Meepkind induced myocardial infarction to commit a self-inflicted genocide. (PROSE: The Star Beast [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Revenge of the Wrarth","pages":"106","chaptnum":"4","1":"The Star Beast (novelisation)"})
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
Several Doctor Who contributors have suffered from heart attacks:
- Patrick Troughton had three major heart attacks, in 1978, 1984, and 1987. He died from the last one.
- Ian Marter died of a heart attack in 1986.
- Jon Pertwee died of a heart attack in 1996.
- Richard Hurndall died of a heart attack in 1984.
- Michael Craze died of a heart attack in 1998.