Healthy Living - Killer in the Shadows: Heart Attacks in Women

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Healthy

Living — Killer in the Shadows: Heart Attacks in Women

Misdiagnosed or ignored altogether, Heart Attacks kill more women than any

other ailment.

 

by Cheryl M. Keyser

 

• • •

 

At about 10:45 p.m. on Feb. 6, 2005, Tina Larrick felt a heaviness in her

chest. Having had previous bouts with bronchitis, she attributed her

discomfort to that. At 8:30 a.m. the next day, however, still ill, she went

to the emergency room at Washington County Hospital. “I felt like I was

dying,” says Tina, a frightening prospect for the then 38-year-old single

mother with no health insurance. She told the ER staff that she was

suffering from bronchitis, but it was a busy day and she was not seen until

3:15 p.m. Blood work turned up evidence of a heart attack. “I thought

heart

attacks were an old person’s disease,” Tina says, even though both

her

father and paternal grandfather died of heart attacks at relatively young

ages. “I always thought that my brothers would be more logical candidates

for heart problems.”

 

Fearful of the possible consequences, Tina called family and friends to tell

everyone she loved them, and then was boarded on a helicopter bound for

Winchester (Va.) Medical Center. She has an amazing ability to remember just

about everything that happened to her in precise time increments: it took

the helicopter 13 minutes to reach Winchester; she was in the operating room

two minutes later; and the catheterization process started at 8:20 p.m.,

when two stents — tiny wire mesh tubes — were placed in her artery

to prop

it open.

 

“I lost the whole front of my heart,” says Tina. The area of her

heart that

was damaged performs the major squeezing action. If a clot forms, the blood

stops flowing in the artery; the more time that passes before treatment, the

muscle fed by that artery begins to die and the patient is left with what is

essentially dead tissue. “After my illness, I read about women and heart

attacks and found I had every symptom.”

 

Fatal Oversight

Younger women with heart disease face a double gender bias. Their illness

does not present itself the same way as a man’s; there is often no chest

pain, and medical personnel do not treat women with heart disease as

aggressively as men. “Even when women have chest pain on a regular basis

and

inform their doctor, it is more likely that the doctor will send a man for a

stress test but not a woman,” says Dr. Dean Notabartolo, a cardiologist

with

Hagerstown Heart. Yet, “Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of

women,” he adds

 

 

More women die of heart disease than breast cancer, but neither women nor

physicians seem to give much thought to the high risk. “It’s not on

the

radar screen,” says Dr. Notabartolo. “People will think of gall

bladder

problems or acid reflux before heart disease, and that may delay the

diagnosis. … Women also experience worse heart attacks then men because

they

don’t realize they are having one. Consequently, they delay visiting

their

doctor or an emergency room.”

 

American lifestyles are contributing to a rise in such heart disease risk

factors as obesity and diabetes. “Heart attacks in younger women are

somewhat on the rise as we become more unhealthy as a population,” Dr.

Notabartolo affirms. However, women do have an advantage during their

premenopausal years because the female hormone, estrogen, helps to protect

them against heart disease. Youth is on the side of younger women who

survive heart attacks because their bodies have more reserves to help them

heal. But once a patient has coronary artery disease, she is prone to have

other blockages, Dr. Notabartolo notes. (Tina had several blood clots after

her heart attack.)

The cardiologist offers strong words of advice to young women: Be aware of

the fact that you are not immune to heart disease; and if you have

unexplained aches and pains in your chest, you should be evaluated for heart

problems.

 

A Fresh Start

After Tina’s heart surgery, a defibrillator — which produces an

electric

jumpstart when the heart rhythm slows — was placed in her chest. She then

entered the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program at Washington County Hospital.

Program Director Pamela Peitz says the recovery process includes three

phases: in-hospital exercises; a rehab program after discharge; and

independent exercise in a hospital or at a wellness center. “On the first

day, participants establish both short-term and long-term goals. Short-term

may be to walk a mile, while long-term could focus on returning to the golf

greens,” Pamela explains. A six-part educational series complements the

exercise program.

 

After successfully completing her rehabilitation, Tina set about putting her

life back together. Seeking a more secure future, she is taking a

computer-keyboarding course at Hagerstown Community College. And she has

adopted a positive attitude about her health condition. “I decided to

celebrate the heart attack on my birthday because I was able to live

again.”

 

 

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Heart Attack Facts

Women account for nearly one-half of all heart attack deaths. Seek medical

attention immediately — within five minutes — if you experience the

following symptoms:

• Pain or discomfort in the center of the chest

• Pain or discomfort in other areas of the upper body, including the

arms,

back, neck, jaw or stomach

• Shortness of breath

• Breaking out in a cold sweat

• Nausea

• Light-headedness

Women are more likely than men to experience shortness of breath,

nausea/vomiting and back or jaw pain. Symptoms might disappear and return.

Not all women feel all the warning signs. Treatments are most effective if

given within one hour of when the attack begins.

Sources: National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Women’s Health

Information Center

 

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Wear Red to Raise Awareness

On Feb. 2, women nationwide will wear red dresses to promote awareness of

heart disease in women as part of National Wear Red Day. For the occasion,

Washington County Hospital will sponsor a girl’s-night-out the evening

before, “Wisdom of the Heart: Women and Heart Disease.”

Participants will

enjoy a heart-health marketplace, dinner, presentation about women’s heart

health by Dr. Ann DeClue, and a fashion show of red dresses and accessories

available at the Uptown-Downtown Shoppes of downtown Hagerstown. A quilt

crafted by nurses in the hospital’s Cardiac Rehabilitation Unit also will

be

raffled off to benefit the cardiac rehab’s scholarship program.

 

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Need to Know...

The Cardiac Rehabilitation Program at Washington County Hospital is

certified by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary

Rehabilitation. For information, call 301-790-8940. Medicare and private

insurers cover some rehabilitation costs. Those individuals who have neither

can apply for a scholarship from a fund supported by the hospital staff

through various fund-raising events.