Abstract
The aim of this study was to show how patients' reactions in periods of crisis of acute illness influenced and made the learning process more difficult. Eleven patients with first-time acute cardiac infarction were interviewed. Many of the patients expressed the positive dimensions of having had cardiac infarction. This was especially true in the case of the younger patients. They stressed the opportunity of taking time-out from a stressed life as a new opportunity. The patients wished to be viewed as competent individuals. They reported getting very little help from their healthcare professionals, and were indeed self-therapeutic while they were in hospital. The question is therefore asked whether the patients receive care if they are perceived as patients able to cope.