Anyone of any age can have a heart attack

MY HEALTH EXPERIENCE:VIRGINIA TEEHAN

ONE NIGHT in October 2007 as I was putting my six-year-old twins, Edward and Alannah, to bed, I felt slightly dizzy.

As I stood up from kissing my daughter good night, the dizziness became worse and I felt a severe knife-like pain in the middle of my upper back extending through to my chest. I also felt nauseous and shivery.

I made my way downstairs to where my husband, Cian, was watching a soccer match with our 10-year-old son, Euan. I said I didn’t feel well and soon became aware that my speech was slurred and my vision was blurred.

My husband immediately phoned for an ambulance. My blood pressure was very low and I was put on oxygen in the ambulance and brought straight to the Mid West Regional Hospital in Limerick city. The paramedic team was brilliant.

That night, I was transferred from the A&E department to the medical unit. It was clear that I had had a heart attack, but the question was why. I was a fit, healthy 45-year-old woman who didn’t smoke, rarely drank alcohol and ate a vegetarian diet for the past 20 years.

I was kept in hospital for nine days – six days in the cardiac care unit where my heart was monitored all the time and then three days in a medical ward.

An angiogram revealed that the heart attack had damaged the heart muscle and function of the heart but I didn’t have cardiovascular disease. I was put on medication to repair both the heart muscle and function. I’m still on this medication.

The medical team couldn’t understand why I had had a heart attack and repeatedly asked me if I had taken cocaine, which I hadn’t.

As a mother of three who worked full-time as the director of the Hunt Museum in Limerick, I had a very busy life, yet no one asked me anything about my lifestyle. And, because I didn’t have cardiovascular disease (which is heart disease caused by clogged arteries or veins), I was excluded from the cardiac rehabilitation programme.

Although I was still very sick, I found it very difficult to be in a multi-bedded ward in the hospital with the daily rounds of medical teams and various disturbances through the night. I really wanted to go home, but I wasn’t well enough to be without medical care.

A bed was found for me in the Milford Care Centre in Limerick city. This was a life-saver.

I stayed at the Milford Care Centre for three weeks and it was there that I began the long process of recovery. The nursing care was excellent and my GP visited me there regularly.

In the beginning, I was so weak that I even needed help to walk. Every day, a nurse helped me walk a few steps more. Others helped me dress myself and wash my hair in a kind, sensitive way that helped me build up my confidence again.

I returned home to recuperate further. I found it very difficult to come to terms with the fact that I had had a heart attack that I could have died from, and I was still frustrated by a lack of answers from the medical team at the hospital as to what triggered it and if it would happen again.

I sought a second opinion from a cardiologist in Cork city. This consultation helped me hugely as this cardiologist went through aspects of my lifestyle and took into consideration both domestic and professional details.

Central to his queries were the stresses in my life especially any related to my role as director of Hunt Museum which, at that time, had gone through a uniquely demanding phase.

He also asked me lots of questions about my health in general and went into a lot of detail about my medical history.

I have always had the tendency to faint when tired or unwell. Also, since childhood, I have been a very poor sleeper and as an adult, I would regularly get up, work through the night, get the children ready for school and then do a day’s work.

He said this, coupled with the other intensities of my life, had to stop.

I also had a cardiac MRI scan which clearly showed the damage to my heart muscle.

The cardiologist confirmed the appropriateness of the medication I was on and explained to me that the results of the MRI, my particular history and other factors, confirmed to him that my heart attack resulted from a severe and rapid decrease in blood pressure.

It was reassuring to know that he had seen this condition successfully managed elsewhere through his work in the US and Australia.

He also helped me work out a health maintenance programme, which I continue to this day.

Essentially, he explained to me that it was my responsibility to look after my health and learn to read the signals of another attack coming on: I have to make sure that my body is well hydrated at all times and if I feel a dizzy spell coming on, I have to lie down and raise my legs so that they are above the level of my heart and stay like this for a little while.

I have had to do this a few times in the past year – once on a long-haul night flight from the United States, which was quite scary.

Also, I had to learn about other triggers, for example, some environments – such as extreme cold, heat or intense humidity such as in a sauna – just don’t suit me.

I returned to work at the Hunt Museum in March 2008 and continued to work there until I took up a new post as director of cultural projects at the University College Cork in late 2009.

However, I have changed the way I work quite radically. I am ruthlessly disciplined about fitting my work into my working day. I’m more selective about what I do and how I interact with people.

Work coupled with the responsibilities of home mean that I have a very structured life. I take regular rest and am more aware of looking after myself. Physically, I feel very well now, but psychologically I’m still getting used to the idea that I have a serious health condition which I have to manage for the rest of my life.

My experience has also taught me that both the medical profession and the public need more education on cardiac issues.

Cardiovascular disease remains the single leading cause of death in the world. Cardiologists acknowledge that they know more about men’s hearts than women’s hearts. It’s important for everyone to realise that women often have smaller hearts and the way they experience a heart attack can be completely different (for example, they may not get a pain radiating down their arm or may not register severe pain as quickly as men).

People should also be aware that cardiac events can be caused by a number of conditions and not all heart attacks are the results of blocked arteries or veins.

We need to be reminded that anyone of any age can have a heart attack for a variety of reasons and that if you have severe symptoms, the most important thing is to get to a hospital fast.

Getting to a hospital within an hour of my first symptoms is what saved my life.

In conversation with Sylvia Thompson