Joseph’s Story Essay

Joseph’s story is a common one of an unsuspected massive heart attack. Even though Joseph had numerous existing factors that put him at risk of heart conditions he continued to live with no fear, or ambition to make changes. While playing ball with his son in the park, Joseph experienced his worst case scenario, a massive heart attack. There were several elements that went into this clinical turn for the worst. Joseph’s heart could now have irreversible damage due to the advanced stage of the condition. When Joseph’s heart stopped working in the park the cells that make up the heart started to use up the remaining ATP that was left in the cells. Because there was no heart function to push oxygenated blood through the vessels the carbon dioxide levels started to increase and PH levels dropped within the cell. The heart was no longer providing blood flow with the rich oxygen and glucose to the mitochondria, which is needed for the production of ATP. Without ATP it was only a matter of a few moments before the active transport pumps in the plasma membrane had stopped. This seize of activity had now allowed for sodium to begin leaking out of the cells and potassium to leak in. Joseph’s lungs could no longer expel harmful carbon dioxide from his body, or bring important oxygen in. Cells were dying. As Joseph lay in the park his son was crying and calling for help. Lucky for them both, some people were nearby who ran to ran to their aid. As one person called for help, another person started CPR on Joseph’s heart. CPR allowed for fresh oxygen to reach his cells and with every chest compression more carbon dioxide was expelled from his body. However, Joseph’s cells were still unable to produce ATP and the structure of the cells were being compromised to say the least. The lack of ATP also meant that special calcium ATPases had stopped moving calcium from the cytosol into endoplasmic reticulum of his cardiac muscle cells. As the intracellular calcium levels rose within the cells, they caused proteases to spill into their interiors of the cell, attacking the cytoskeleton. Lysosomal enzymes as well as mitochondrial organelles are usually contained by membranes or vesicles. A lot of a cell does it contained within that membrane. When a cell starts to die the first to start seize is the membrane, exchanging nothing intentional, but leaking nutrients in and out. The instructions Joseph’s body needs to repair itself and his disposition for vascular disease are both contained within the cell, inside DNA, located in the nucleolus. As the intracellular calcium levels rose, they caused proteases to spill into the interior of the cell, attacking the cytoskeleton. Lysosmal enzymes normally bound safely inside vesicles began to digest the plasma membrane and the membranes of the organelles. Oxygen is required by cells to produce ATP, oxygen, and nutrients, multiple cellular processes affecting hemostasis. Joseph was not treating his body with the care it needed. As a result the cells in his body reacted in a damaging way. Health and disease are ultimately determined at the cellular level.