Two things stick out and strike me as odd each time I hear another story:
1. Women's heart attack symptoms are not necessarily always the same as a man's symptoms or even what one would think of as 'typical'.
2. The emergency staff or doctor(s) treating many of these women, in more cases than not, had a tendency to dismiss their symptoms as anxiety. With that, they'd give an anti-anxiety and prescribe an anti-depressant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwV-r9vyRt8&feature=related
These two things make me sad and angry!
A while ago, I wrote about my own experience of the day I had my heart attack. Sadly, I got the same reaction as many of these women once I'd gotten to the Emergency Room. NO ONE even thought to look at my heart due to the symptoms AND my age. Being 44 years old at the time, coming in with an extremely sore throat as my main symptom probably didn't seem to send up any red flags at first. However, as time went on and my situation began going downhill, you would think one of those trained medical professionals would have thought to check my heart.
To be fair (does fairness really matter when you're about to die?), during most of the action, I was pretty out of it. Being unable to breathe while on medication you're having a bad reaction to may have a tendency to do that to you. Anyway, it wasn't until they were getting ready to send me home at the end of the day, because they couldn't find anything wrong, that someone finally spoke up and suggested checking the heart. After reading through all the doctor's notes from that night, I learned that that someone was ME. Thank you, Jesus!
Months later, I was asked to speak and give my story at an American Heart Association luncheon. Not wanting to ruffle any feathers, I told my story, but left out what I really wanted to say, which is this:
NOT ONLY DOES THERE NEED TO BE MORE RESEARCH AS TO WHY CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE IS THE NUMBER ONE KILLER OF WOMEN (NOW TAKING MORE AND MORE YOUNGER WOMEN), BUT OUR EMERGENCY PERSONNEL AND DOCTORS MUST BE BETTER EDUCATED IN THE AREAS OF THE ATYPICAL SYMPTOMS OF HEART ATTACKS IN WOMEN!
All this has me wondering how much responsibility should be placed on the doctors. Just watch a few of the Go Red videos and see if you don't end up wondering the same. It seems to me that a lot of heart attacks could be have been prevented if these women's doctors wouldn't have been so quick to dismiss their odd symptoms.
My own experience with a doctor who wouldn't listen ended up with me firing him. He did more talking than listening and I ended up in the hospital due to blood pressure issues. Instead of running tests to get to the root of the problem, he kept insisting on treating the symptoms with anti-depressants. You can trust and believe the only emotion I was feeling was frustration and NOT depression!
Now, due to my medical history, they listen and will usually go above and beyond to make sure they cover all their bases. Unfortunately, it took a pretty drastic health event to reach this point. If anything has come out of this, one thing is for sure... I hope and pray that what happened to me has given our doctors cause to stop and think before discharging a young woman with throat, neck, jaw, ear or even thumb pain.
If you find yourself in a position where your doctor isn't willing to work with you and hear you out, find one who will. It may take some time, but they're out there and it will be worth it.
Bottom line: Less talk and more listen, Doc!
S.
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