Heartache to Heartbreak
Not everyone who suffers a heart attack clutches their chest and falls to the floor.
“I woke up and felt like a pill was stuck in my throat,” says Betsy, a 68-year-old patient from Upper Providence.
“I was taking antibiotics at the time and really didn’t think much of it,” she adds. “So I tried drinking water and when the ‘stuck’ feeling didn’t go away after 45 minutes, I thought something might be wrong.”
“My son took me to the emergency room and yes, now I realize I should have called 911 immediately.”
After the ER staff ran an EKG (a test that measures the electrical activity of the heart), they told Betsy she was having a heart attack.
“Next thing I knew, they took me right to the cardiac cath lab and inserted a stent to open up my artery. After two days in the hospital, I came home and started cardiac rehab three times a week for about the last five weeks.”
Betsy’s recovery also involved making important changes to her lifestyle like quitting smoking, “which I really didn’t want to do, but I had to,” watching her cholesterol, and making time for daily exercise—whether it’s walking or using free weights.
“What’s amazes me most is that I didn’t even realize I was having heart attack. Had I waited much longer, things may have turned out very differently.”
Betsy is one of an estimated 650,000 Pennsylvanians, ages 35 and over, who have been told by a doctor that they’ve had a heart attack, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s 2008 “Behavorial Risks of Pennsylvania Adults.”
Last Updated: 2/12/2010