It was a beautiful sunny Florida afternoon and Tiffany, who enjoyed being outdoors, was in her garden.
On this particular day, however, something unusual happened. Tiffany developed a sudden onset of chest pain, accompanied by some shortness of breath. She had been working very hard to get her garden in order, not taking any breaks; without hesitation she decided to go inside and get a drink. Surely, she thought, rehydration would relieve what she felt to be heat exhaustion.
After several minutes, the chest pain increased. What she was feeling was nothing like she had ever experienced before, so Tiffany decided to look up her symptoms on the Internet. To her surprise the results came back “heart attack,” but she didn’t have a family history of heart disease, she exercised, wasn’t overweight and didn’t have all the symptoms listed.
As she made her way through the rest of the article she developed the remaining symptoms listed on the Web page. At that moment, aside from being in a near panic, she phoned several family members and a friend. All advised her to quickly call 911.
Paramedics arrived just in time. Tiffany went into cardiac arrest and was successfully resuscitated. She was transported to Martin Memorial Medical Center, where the medical team at the Frances Langford Heart Center was able to open the blocked artery and save her life.
This story has a happy ending: Tiffany is alive today and recently celebrated her 29th birthday.
Heart disease is known as the silent killer, especially in women. Listed below are some quick facts about heart disease:
· Only 13 percent of women view heart disease as a health threat, even though it’s women’s No. 1 killer.
· Cardiovascular disease (CVD) kills more than 480,000 women a year, about one per minute.
· Coronary heart disease is the No. 1 single killer of women over age 25.
· Sixty-four percent of women who died suddenly of coronary heart disease had no previous symptoms.
· One in 2.6 female deaths are from CVD, compared with one in 30 from breast cancer.
To learn more about women and heart disease visit http://www.goredforwomen.org/.
Heart disease can be prevented, so take a moment to learn how to reduce your risk of heart disease and protect your health.
--Melissa Zinderman, RN
Cardiovascular Patient Educator/STS Data Collector
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