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Age: 52
Sex: Female
Race: Caucasian
Occupation: Retired Music Director
History
- A non-smoker
- Normal blood pressure and low cholesterol
- Bike rides 20 miles a day
- Family History of Breast Cancer
Turning Point
On Saturday, May 20, 2006, Susan and her husband went out for a usual bike ride. Susan was fine for the first half of the ride. She started having pain below her sternum, but since she has GERD, she thought it must be that—too much water too fast?--even though the pain was somewhat different. After resting for a few minutes, Susan and her husband rode home slowly.
But the pain got worse, moved up into her jaw, and then into her upper arms so Susan took an aspirin. A few minutes later she told her husband that she needed to see a doctor and he called 911. Her initial EKG was normal, and they loaded her into the ambulance for what started out as a routine ride to the hospital; but halfway to the hospital it started to show changes indicating a blockage. Red lights and sirens the rest of the way!
As Susan laid in the ambulance, she wondered if she was going to die. She prayed to God, and asked Him to spare her for her son’s sake. Susan’s son was a Marine and was training to return to the Middle East. Susan asked God not to take his mother from him at his young age of 23.
Susan’s husband, a hospital director, had to stand there helplessly and watch her have a heart attack. He had to call her parents and tell them that their fifty year old daughter had a heart attack. After hanging up the phone, Susan’s parents fell to their knees and cried by the family chair. Although Susan reassured her son that she was fine, he got emergency leave and came home to be by her side.
At the hospital, Susan learned that she had one artery with a 95% blockage. The blockage turned out to be too long for one stent, so that day and again three weeks later Susan had a total of three stents placed.
Today
Susan is extremely fortunate and has no heart damage. Other than having to take a handful of medication every day, her life isn’t too much different. She added three miles to her daily bike ride, for a total of 20 miles a day. Susan spends her time educating people on heart disease and feels if by telling her story she can spare just one person of what she went through, then it all was worth it. |
