Can You Get Disability Benefits After a Heart Attack?

If you’ve recently had a heart attack, you know of the dangers and the fear surrounding the entire incident. The pains in your arm, the hospital stay, and the surgery are but a small part of the issue. You worry about your family. You worry about your job. It’s not easy. A lot of people go on living very normal and healthy lives after a heart attack—a very good thing! However, it can end up disabling some people enough to keep them from working. The injuries that you can sustain (not to mention recovery from any heart surgery you might have had) can leave you debilitated for years.

We’d like to say this before we continue: you cannot receive SSDI for a heart attack alone. By itself, it is not considered disabling and has no listing in the Social Security Administration (SSA)’s Blue Book. However, there are some other ways to receive benefits, especially if the heart attack has caused other damages.

Heart Disease

Heart disease is listed as a disabling condition in the Blue Book, and is a major health issue of which heart attacks are a symptom. If you’re having multiple heart attacks, you may qualify for disability benefits.

However, the requirements to receive benefits are quite stringent. You must show certain limitations. You must show limitations in an exercise tolerance test or have three separate ischemic episodes (related to heart attacks) in which a revascularization (bypass) is performed or needs to be but cannot be. Another way is by proving coronary artery disease. You’ll need evidence showing that you have at least one of these symptoms:

• Narrowing of a non-bypassed left main coronary artery by at least half
• Narrowing of another non-bypassed coronary artery by at least 70%
• Narrowing by at least half of a long segment (longer than a centimeter) of a non-bypassed coronary artery
• Narrowing by at least half of two non-bypassed coronary arteries
• Narrowing of a bypass graft vessel by at least 70%

These symptoms, in addition, must be in conjunction with very serious limitations to begin, perform, or complete daily activities. The rules are, as we said, very stringent.

Recurrent Arrhythmias

It’s not just myocardial infarction that you need to worry about here. Cardiac arrest (often misconstrued to be a heart attack) is a different form of heart issue that results from arrhythmias. An arrhythmia is an abnormal rhythm in your heartbeat. Plenty of things can cause arrhythmia:

• Coronary Artery Disease
• Cardiomyopathy
• Valve disorders
• Electrolyte imbalances in the blood
• High blood pressure
• Healing process from heart surgery
• Injury from heart attack (myocardial infarction)
• Other medical conditions

You’ll notice in this list that injuries sustained from a heart attack, heart disease, and heart surgery (all common in people who’ve had heart attacks) make the list of reasons why someone might have a heart attack.

The Blue Book has rules here, as well. The arrhythmia must not be caused by electrolyte abnormalities or any other reversible cause. The arrhythmia must also consist of uncontrolled and recurrent instances of “cardiac syncope or near syncope” (loss of consciousness, also known as fainting) while taking medication to combat those syncopes. It must also be documented through an ECG that is “coincident” with the fainting.

The SSA is particularly strict on heart issues, perhaps due to their prevalence in the United States. However, while a heart attack itself might not qualify you for disability, you may qualify based off the conditions that caused the attack or the injuries you sustain after one. If you’re not sure of whether or not you qualify, be sure to contact us regarding your injuries. Even if you can’t work, you deserve to be able to live.