Leslie Combs
My story began in May of 2014 with an early morning visit to the emergency room for what I thought was a bad case of heartburn. I told the doctor on call that I had been experiencing symptoms for the past 24 hours. He wasted no time: he immediately ordered tests. Within 20 minutes, he returned to tell me I was having a heart attack.
I had a heart catheterization and doctors found a 98% blockage in one artery. They put in a stent. I spent the next day in the intensive care unit and several more days in a hospital room under the care of several doctors. The doctors were never able to determine exactly why I had a heart attack. A few days prior to this incident, I had been diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism and was on medication that should have prevented a heart attack from happening.
Today I am healthy and I am a survivor. I especially want women to know that our symptoms can be very different and they shouldn’t be ignored. My heartburn was persistent and wouldn’t go away: I hadn’t experienced it before, other than when I had been pregnant. Women can have very subtle signs and symptoms, so they should be aware.
The care I received was excellent and I am alive today because of the advancements in care and the immediate attention of the staff at the hospital. Doctors told me that six months prior to my heart attack, they couldn’t tell that I had ever had one! Modern medical techniques and research can save lives. They saved mine.
Jennifer Nelson
I have always been very healthy and I work out constantly. In fact, I’m a runner and I have even run a couple of half marathons.
On June 11, 2015 – my daughter’s 4th birthday – I woke up and was preparing to go on a run. Out of nowhere, I blacked out.
When I came to, I was in my workout clothes and I wasn’t sure what was happening. I noticed a tingling feeling on my right side, so I texted my friend to let her know I wasn’t going to be running with her that day. I called my husband, who was in the next room. I told him I thought I was having a stroke – at 35 years old.
I was feeling numb on one side and I felt like I couldn’t walk. My husband helped me to the couch. When I told him my vision was blurry, he drove me to the hospital. Once I arrived at the hospital, they immediately ordered scans and an MRI. They recommended TPA to break down any blood clots, and I was admitted.
The next morning, after running more tests, doctors found a hole in my heart – a defect larger than a nickel – that had never been detected. When I look back now, I had been feeling sick for two or three years and going to the doctor constantly, but never knew what was wrong.
I had heart surgery to fix the problem. I ended up staying in the hospital for a week.
By the grace of god, I never needed physical therapy and all mobility returned. I’m completely back to normal and I work out every day. I feel so lucky to be here!
Karen Hillenmeyer
It was to be a busy October day. I arose excited for some home remodel work to occur that morning. After dressing in usual work attire of navy scrubs, I started a slow cooker anticipating the aroma and convenience of prepared dinner after work. Heading to the hospital for a 7:30am surgical case, my morning was nothing but typical.
After pulling out of my neighborhood, suddenly my left arm dropped from the steering wheel. I glanced down with odd recognition of the arm but no sense of its position or feeling. A failed attempt to move it initiated panic. Looking up, realizing I had drifted into oncoming traffic, I suddenly felt my world shift.
I made it to the hospital for testing. My brain MRI revealed a right parietal stroke. I understood exactly what this meant, having cared for many patients through the years, but never anticipated this would happen to me.
A workup found the cause was a hole in my heart—a large opening between upper chambers allowing “good” oxygen rich blood to mix back into the non-oxygenated side. Years of unexplained fatigue were explained!
Through the opening, turbulent blood flow had allowed a clot to form. Choosing a random time to break free and travel, it found its permanent home in a blood vessel that fed the area of my brain controlling left arm use. The opening was surgically repaired.
Retrospectively, this event was a blessing. With complete recovery, the repair left a more functional heart without the symptom of tiredness I endured for so long.
I have never felt better—and I hope that sharing my story will increase awareness and help others.
Bettie Eubanks
I am 81 years old and I have three children. I worked as a nurse for 48 years. I have no family history of heart disease.
While I was working one day in 1992, I had some chest pain, which I thought was indigestion. Several coworkers suggested I go to the emergency room and get checked. It was there that I had an echocardiogram and the results showed irregularities.
Further tests resulted in a diagnosis of a blocked left bundle branch. This is a condition characterized by a delay or obstruction along the pathway on which electrical impulses travel to make your heart beat normally.
My doctor said this condition shouldn’t give me any problems, so I was prescribed a daily beta blocker and was sent home to rest. I returned to work and continued routine follow up visits. I lived a healthy and positive life for the most part, until I lost my oldest child to kidney disease in 2001.
In early 2017, however, I started feeling light headed and experienced shortness of breath. Thinking it was only a side effect of medication, I didn’t seek help. But the symptoms didn’t go away and by April of this year, I started experiencing sharp pains in my right shoulder. My sons persuaded me to go to my doctor and my youngest son even went with me.
Tests revealed that I had three blocked arteries. I was admitted to the coronary care unit to have a heart catheterization. Even after having two stent replacements while in the hospital, I continued to experience shoulder pain and shortness of breath. A CAT scan revealed blood clots in both lungs. After treatment and rehab, I went home with a strict diet plan and exercise schedule.
Today I eat healthier and exercise more often and I feel years younger. I have learned not to ignore any abnormal changes in my body. Most of all, I celebrate that I am a survivor!
Deanne Downey
I had a triple bypass when I was just 38 years old.
For a long time after my surgery, I was so worried about dying that I forgot what it meant to live. I know now that it was wasted time. I finally learned to have fun again, to really enjoy life and put that experience behind me. I even went from hiding the scar on my chest to barely even noticing it.
I’ve never liked being called a heart survivor. I think it’s because it reminds me of a time in my life when I felt weak. More than anything, I want my sons to think of me as a strong woman. So today, I am wearing the red dress and I’ll be walking the runway in honor of all my awesome heart sisters that overcame the hand they were dealt and conquered heart disease!
Because heart disease is the number one killer of women, everyone should be their own health advocate by getting preventative checkups and paying attention to symptoms. These checkups should be much more than just cholesterol and blood pressure checks: they should include scans of arteries, especially if there is a family history, like I had.
“Rock your scars proudly. Be brave because you were given a second chance at life. Live it fiercely!”
Paula Pope
On August 7, 2015, I was recovering at home two days after an extensive shoulder surgery when I experienced a major ischemic stroke. My husband and I were watching TV. It was time to take a pain pill, so he left the room to get my medication. When he returned, he noticed immediately that I had a vacant look on my face, I was not responding to his questions and when I did speak, it was gibberish.
He immediately called 9-1-1 and a rescue squad was at our home within five minutes. They quickly assessed my condition and put me into the ambulance. I was taken directly to get CAT scans, which revealed a blood clot about the size of a nickel. I was having a serious stroke.
Having just had shoulder surgery, I was not a candidate for a TPA injection, the super clot-busting drug that seeks out and dissolves clots. Instead, the plan was to route a catheter through my groin and when they reached the clot in my brain, they would dissolve it with localized TPA. Within a couple of minutes, the doctor was quizzing me about basic information and my normal speech had returned.
Time was vitally important in my story. My husband immediately recognized that something was wrong with me and called 9-1-1. The EMS quickly assessed me and got me to the hospital. Two experienced and amazing doctors were quickly at my side, developed a treatment plan and carried it out, and that made all the difference in my complete recovery.
Since my stroke, I have been diagnosed with a congenital heart defect – a hole in the two upper chambers of my heart – which will be closed eventually. I take clot preventing medication daily and am grateful to everyone who helped me survive what likely could have been a catastrophic stroke. I am living testament to the importance of FAST response in case of a stroke.
Judy Piazza
In 2004, I was not feeling well and went to my doctor. I was tired and sweating all the time and was easily getting winded. My symptoms would not go away and I thought it was strange that my doctor was asking questions about my cholesterol and blood pressure. He told me I needed to see a cardiologist.
Thought I thought this was extreme, I agreed to a stress test. I passed the stress test, but the cardiologist came in and asked me a strange question: he wanted to know how many pillows I slept on at night. I was sleeping with my head elevated so I could breathe. This meant that my heart was working too hard.
I had a heart catheterization and had two stents, but after about nine months, those same symptoms returned. I had another heart cath and another stent. Then less than a year later, I went back to my doctor because I felt the familiar symptoms. This time the catheterization showed a blockage that was too dangerous to stent and I would have to have a bypass. I was resistant, but the doctor told me that if I didn’t have the surgery, I wouldn’t live long.
I want to remind women to be their own advocates because my first doctor dismissed my symptoms as menopause related. He put me on hormones and when I didn’t get better, he simply told me to quit taking them. Women’s symptoms are very different from men’s and women need to keep talking until somebody hears them. Only you know your body. I was lucky to find a cardiologist who understood that I knew myself better than anyone. Women have God-given intuition: we use it for our spouses and our kids and even our pets, but when we think something is wrong with ourselves, we don’t act.
Today I live a healthy lifestyle and I no longer have any symptoms. I have two dogs and walk them every day: I like to say they saved my life!
Sarah Gililland
On the day I was born, my mother knew something was wrong. I have two older sisters and they were born healthy. Unlike my siblings, I was born with a heart defect.
At the age of two, I underwent a heart catheterization and was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson White (WPW) Syndrome, which affects the way the heart beats due to extra accessory pathways. It causes a rapid heartbeat.
With medication, I was able to live a regular life. However, before I went to college, my cardiologist suggested an ablation. Unfortunately, neither my first, second nor third ablations fixed the problem. Doctors eventually determined that there wasn’t just one accessory pathway, but four, a very rare condition. Worse, their placement made them difficult to ablate.
At the time, I experienced heart episodes that would cause Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT) or rapid heartbeat. In order to get my heart rate back to a normal rhythm, I performed drastic maneuvers, like sticking my head in a bucket of ice. When those didn’t work, I had to go to the hospital to be given adenosine, which felt like a kick in my chest. I endured many years of hospital and doctor visits, along with taking multiple medications at different dosages and countless ambulance rides.
When I was 25 years old, my doctor convinced me and my parents that we should try one more ablation. And this time, it worked!
I never thought it would be possible to say that I am living my life free of a heart condition, but to celebrate my fifth “heart anniversary” next year in May, I’m training to run a half marathon.
Thanks to my amazing team of doctors, my family and a positive attitude, I am alive today with a daily reminder of my ordeal – I have a tattoo of the electrocardiogram on my wrist.
Elyse Adams
My name is Elyse and I am 10 years old. I was born with a very rare condition; a complete heart block and a slow heartbeat. A complete heart block, or third-degree heart block, means that the “electrical impulses” from nerves don’t reach the lower or upper chambers of the heart. Doctors told my parents that if I survived, I would need immediate surgery. But I proved them wrong! I was strong and I did all the things that other babies do.
When I was two years old, I had an echocardiogram and it showed that I had a leaky heart valve, which was impairing the flow of blood through my heart. My cardiologist said I needed a pacemaker to help my heart work better.
I had my pacemaker replaced in August of this year. I have a lot of energy so I don’t always remember that I even have a pacemaker! I like to do gymnastics, competitive swimming and I’m on my school’s jump rope team.
My mom says the reason I survived is because everyone prayed hard for me and we are grateful to our family and friends. We are also grateful for the incredible technology and my amazing doctors who helped me along the way.
Finn Collier
I’m Finn and I’m six years old and in kindergarten. I was born healthy, but when I was just 21 hours old, I stopped breathing. Doctors told my parents that I had four congenital heart defects and would need immediate surgery – the first of many in the days to come.
I was diagnosed with transposition of the great arteries, pulmonary stenosis, tricuspid regurgitation and a large hole in my heart (VSD). When I was five days old, I had a “quick fix” surgery that would keep me alive until I got bigger.
When I was five months old, I had my second and third surgeries in Michigan, where I stayed for nearly two months, after I had some complications. Then two years ago, I went to Michigan again for my fourth heart surgery and that time, I was able to come home after four days. But just four weeks later and four days after my fourth birthday, I went into congestive heart failure. But my doctors say I am a miracle because I came out of that trauma, even though my heart stopped beating for an hour!
I have more surgeries ahead of me, with the next one coming up in six months or so. My family depends on faith and prayer and no matter what, we know it’s God’s plan. I have been blessed with the best doctors and surgeons who know exactly what I need!
The line from the song is simple and true – “you gotta love like there’s no such thing as a broken heart.”