HOUSTON – During Heart Health Month, doctors are wanting women to be in tune with symptoms of heart disease.
Symptoms of heart attacks can be different in women. Spontaneous coronary artery dissection, or SCAD, can also be missed since it appears mostly in younger women, often with no history of heart problems.
Meghan Hokom Stapleton started experiencing symptoms of SCAD on an airplane. She said her arm hurt and her fingers went numb.
“I just start to realize that the pain in my arm is not going away,” she said.
Charisa Francisco experienced a severe chest, neck and back “stabbing pain” with SCAD, just one week after delivering her third child.
“Painful stabbing, like (a) super heavy chest,” she recounted.
Neither woman had any previous heart issues.
According to Dr. Wahaj Aman, an interventional cardiologist with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and Memorial Hermann Hospital, symptoms are almost invisible and can be fatal.
“It mostly presents in women, an overwhelming majority of women between the ages of 40 to 50 and even younger,” Dr. Aman said. “I cannot stress enough, believe the patient when they say that they’re having chest pain.”
For Stapleton, medical responders did not think her symptoms were alarming.
“They felt I was having an anxiety attack. I convinced them to take me in and we did some triage in the ER,” she said. “What I know is that I was perfectly healthy and had no cholesterol and no history of heart issues, and yet, I was having a heart attack. It just didn’t make sense.”
For Francisco, the signs of SCAD were slightly more obvious since she had just delivered a baby.
“To be honest, as soon as I heard a 30-year-old female (that was) postpartum (was) having chest pain, my index of suspicion was very high, and thankfully, it did not take us very long. We looked at the EKG and immediately rushed her to the lab,” Dr. Aman said.
Both women feel lucky to be alive.
“I have three kids. I’m only 30-years-old. I still have my dreams,” Francisco said.
Stapleton was lucky twice. She survived SCAD and then received a heart transplant.
“I am so grateful for the staff at Memorial Hermann and in the Cath Lab because they refused to let me die,” Stapleton said.