HONOLULU -- A man who suffered a heart attack shortly after Hawaii mistakenly issued an alert about a ballistic missile filed a lawsuit against the state on Tuesday. The false missile alert and the state's failure to cancel it in a timely manner was a substantial factor in causing James Sean Shields' heart attack on Jan. 13, the lawsuit said. 
 
 His girlfriend Brenda Reichel joined the lawsuit, having suffered "emotional upset" from watching him almost die on several occasions. Their lawsuit names the state of Hawaii and the then-administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, Vern Miyagi. 
 
 The lawsuit also names unidentified state employees, individuals and entities responsible for the missile alert. The suit seeks unspecified damages. 
 
 "We're going to reserve any comment until we have had a chance to review the claims," said Richard Rapoza, a spokesman for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency State attorney general spokesman Krishna F. Jayaram said the office will review the complaint carefully and respond in due course. 
 
 Miyagi declined to comment. A Hawaii Emergency Management Agency employee mistakenly sent the missile alert to cellphones and broadcasters on Jan. 13, triggering widespread panic until the agency sent another message 38 minutes later notifying people it was a false alarm. 
 
 The lawsuit recounts how the couple was heading from their townhome in Hawaii Kai to Sandy Beach on that Saturday morning when they received the alert on their cellphones. "Both plaintiffs believe this message to be true and were extremely frightened and thought they were shortly going to die," the lawsuit said. 
 
 This smartphone screen capture shows a false incoming ballistic missile emergency alert sent from the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency system on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2018. Caleb Jones / AP 
 
 They decided if they were going to die, they might as well die together on the beach, the lawsuit said. Reichel's son, who is in the Hawaii Army National Guard, called her saying the threat was real and asked what they planned to do to seek shelter. 
 
 The couple called their loved ones as they drove to the beach. Shields began to feel a severe and painful burning in his chest after he called his son and daughter. 
 
 Shortly after, he went to a community clinic, where he suffered cardiac arrest. A doctor resuscitated him, while arriving paramedics assisted him further. 
 
 He was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction or heart attack after he arrived at Straub Hospital, the lawsuit said. CBS affiliate KGMB-TV reports that paramedics responded to three other incidents that day that the patients or members of their family blamed on the missile alert. 
 
 The other incidents were an 89-year-old man who fell, a 37-year-old woman in a car accident and a 38-year-old woman who was experiencing anxiety, KGMB-TV reports. 

 “There are probably thousands of people out there who suffered either financial or physical injuries as a result of what happened," Rosenberg said. "I’m aware, for example, of several car accidents that occurred on the day that the missile alert came up because people were rushing around trying to either get home or get to loved ones or get as far away from the downtown area as possible. So there are a number of car accidents. Those, in my opinion, are all attributable to the state.”
– A Hawaii man claims that a false alert about incoming ballistic missiles issued in that state earlier this year caused him to have a heart attack. On Jan. 13, Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency fired off an alert to cellphones warning, “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.” A lawsuit filed Tuesday says James Sean Shields and Brenda Reichel, both listed as plaintiffs, “believed the message to be true and were extremely frightened and thought they were going to die,” NBC reports. According to the suit, the pair, who lived in Honolulu, were heading to Sandy Beach when the alert came, per KGMB. “If they were going to die,” the suit says, “They might as well die together on the beach.” So they continued to the beach. Once they arrived, they began to call loved ones.” After calling his kids, Shields began to have severe chest pains, per CBS. He went to a clinic, where he suffered cardiac arrest and was resuscitated. Around the same time, some 30 minutes after the missile alert, the state sent another message saying the alert was sent in error. Per KGMB, the suit says that Shields hadn’t had any heart conditions previously. Vern T. Miyagi, former Emergency Management Agency administrator, as well as unnamed state employees are named in the suit, which seeks unspecified damages. “We’re going to reserve any comment until we have had a chance to review the claims," a state attorney tells CBS. According to reports, an elderly man fell, a 37-year-old woman had a car accident, and a 37-year-old woman called 911 with anxiety in connection to the false alarm. (This man claims that licorice caused his heart problems.)