Objective To deeply explore coping style of persons with acute myocardial infarctionfrom incidence to hospital admission. Methods A qualitative research with cross-sectional and retro-spective multiple-case study was used. Ten persons with confirmed acute myocardial infarction were recruit-ed from a large hospital in Wuhan. Semi-structured interviews and conceptual framework for this study wereconducted based on a guide developed hom a review of the literatures pertaining to coping ability and ex-pert opinion. Interviews were audiotape recorded and transcribed verbatim. Qualitative date were analyzedby using thematic analysis. Results Coping ability influenced patients" decisions in seeking treatment,associated with patients" geographic area, culture and economy but not education. Analysis of the data re-vealed coping ability included three sub-themes: remaining routine life as usual,seeking resources and helpand confirming the disease. Conclusions Systemic health education should be supplied to high-risk pop-ulation to improve their ability to cope with disease.Effective measures should be adopted to reduce timedelay so that the disease incidence rate,death rate and disability rate will be reduced.