HOUSTON – High blood pressure and preeclampsia can be indicators that women are at risk for heart disease later in life, according to cardiologist Dr. Bobbi Bogaev Chapman.
However, she said there are even more minor symptoms, like swollen ankles, that also should not be ignored.
“I felt like I couldn’t breathe, and I just thought I’m pregnant, I’m a little bit older than my previous pregnancy and I’m chasing around a toddler, so this must just be normal. It definitely was not!” Jessica Grib described her symptoms that were an indication of peripartum cardiomyopathy.
Grib experienced heart failure while delivering her second child.
“I was coding, I had to be rushed into the ICU, in the cardiac cath lab, so things went downhill really quickly,” she said. “They gave me something called an Impella, which is like a propeller that’s placed inside of my heart to pump the blood, because my heart wasn’t able to do it on its own, and that kept me stable until I had to be on even more life-support called an ECMO machine.”
During this emergency, she was rushed to a different hospital and the baby stayed in the hospital where she was delivered. It was two weeks until Grib was conscious enough to meet her new daughter.
She did have symptoms but they were always dismissed as pregnancy symptoms, not her heart.
Cardiologist Bobbi Chapman said dismissing those symptoms happens all the time.
“Too often women can develop fluid in their ankles that can be just attributed to pregnancy,” Dr. Chapman said. “It’s only when those signs and symptoms continue to exacerbate following delivery that they ever return.”
Dr. Chapman said heart disease can manifest up to ten years later.
“[Women] need to be very in tune to the risk of having cardiac complications later,” Dr. Chapman said.
Grib recovered back to full health and even went on to have another baby.
“We spoke to every specialist we could possibly think of,” Grib said. “They’re like ‘well, your heart is fully recovered, you’re not on medication so you should be able to have another baby with no problem.’”
If you are pregnant right now, take this test if have any of these symptoms to determine what they could mean for your heart health: swelling, fast heart rate, chest pain, difficulty breathing, persistent cough.