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DON’T WAIT
YOUR HEART
MAY BE
CALLING
FOR HELP
CHEST PAIN.
Numbness in the left arm. Shortness of
breath. Nausea. All textbook indicators of a heart attack
and symptoms you would expect to happen to a male
in his 60s.
Sabrina Angeles experienced these symptoms and
more, but she’s quite the opposite of the stereotypical
heart attack victim. The young mother of four is healthy
overall and was only 5 when she had a massive heart
attack in August.
On Monday, Aug. 11, Angeles began working out with
a personal trainer. That evening, she started having chest
pains, but they only lasted 20 minutes before receding.
She didn’t pay much attention to the pain and continued
her workout routine the next two days without any issues.
Thursday, Aug. 1, was a different story.
“I got off work and began my workout routine at
a.m.,” she says. “My chest started hurting after about
five minutes on the treadmill. I stopped and waited for the
pain to quit, and it did after about 15 minutes, so I tried
the treadmill again and the pain came back. I decided to
switch gears and lift some light weights, and that’s when
I lost my breath.”
Around :0 a.m., Angeles’s symptoms were in full swing.
“I started to feel my chest tightening; my left arm and
side were numb; I started feeling nauseated,” Angeles re-
calls. “I was in so much pain, I crawled to the bathroom in
case I got sick, but I never did. Then I started to have cold
sweats. At this point, I was in tears because of the pain.”
Angeles’s oldest daughter woke up to find her mother
Coffey infographic with information from the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health
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35
ABOUT
OF
AMERICAN
WOMEN
SMOKE.
HAVING A WAIST OF MORE THAN
I N C H E S
RAISES THE
RISK OF HEART
DISEASE IN
WOMEN.
WOMEN IN THE
U.S. DIES FROM
BREAST
CANCER
1
IN
3
WOMEN IN THE
U.S. DIE FROM
HEART
DISEASE
WOMEN AND
HEART DISEASE
JUSTTHE
FACTS
MA’AM
Women whose weight goes up
and down dramatically (typically
as a result of unhealthy dieting)
are at higher risk for heart
disease.
45 64
A N D
1 IN 8 WOMEN BETWEEN THE AGES OF
HAS SOME FORM OF HEART DISEASE.
WOMENWHO
SMOKE
ARE
TIMES
MORE LIKELY TO
HAVE A HEART
ATTACK THAN
WOMEN WHO
DON’T
SMOKE.
1
IN
36
16
%
MORE
THAN
in excruciating pain. She called Angeles’s boyfriend, who
was at work an hour-and-a-half out of town.
“I’m stubborn, and I don’t like to go to the doctor, but
he forced me to go to the emergency room,” Angeles says.
“I just kept thinking if I could go to sleep, I would feel
better when I woke up.”
TYPICAL, BUT NOT COMMON
At the emergency room,
Angeles underwent an EKG, a chest x-ray and blood
work. That’s where she met Samia Benslimane, MD,
Shannon cardiologist, for the first time.
“A sonogram of her heart revealed an artery with
percent blockage, so part of her heart was not moving,”
Dr. Benslimane says. “If she would have fallen asleep like
she wanted, to try and get rid of the pain, she would not
have woken up again.”
Dr. Benslimane says it is not common for people in
their 0s to have plaque buildup in their arteries, so a
massive heart attack like Angeles’s is very uncommon
for her age and gender. “Normally, symptoms of a heart
attack in women are atypical, but Sabrina experienced
the classic ones,” Dr. Benslimane says. “She felt like an
elephant was sitting on her chest; she had shortness of
breath and nausea. If she was just talking and you couldn’t
see her to tell her age, you would think she was 0 years
older, because that’s the normal.”
DON’T LET IT HAPPEN TO YOU
Fortunately, Angeles’s
outcome is not grim. But her experience is proof that a
heart attack can happen to anyone—regardless of age and
gender—and the symptoms must not be ignored. The
best part of her situation is that she was healthy before
her heart attack occurred.
“She was exercising and using her heart muscle,”
Dr. Benslimane points out. “If you’re not working your
muscle, how else are you going to know there is a problem?
She wouldn’t have experienced the chest pain or short-
ness of breath by sitting on the couch. This is why at least
0 minutes of daily physical activity—even walking—is
important.”
Five months after her heart attack, Angeles is still in
recovery. She is on a cholesterol medicine, even though
her levels are good, to help keep her arteries “smooth”
and plaque-free. She also takes aspirin daily and was on
a Coumadin regimen due to a blood clot in her heart. She
will continue checkups with Dr. Benslimane to make sure
her heart is recovering properly.
“I am still processing the fact that I had a heart at-
tack at age 5,” Angeles says. “I never thought this would
happen to me, much less when I was this young. But I
hope my family and friends will learn something from
my experience and pay attention to the warning signs
and their health.”
HAPPY TO BE TOGETHER: Sabrina Angeles, second from left, and her four children (from left): Brittany Angeles, 12;
Ethan Angeles, 7; Destiny Gourlay, 15; Abigail Gourlay, 17
H e a r t
2
W I N T E R 2 0 1 5
H E A L T H
B E A T
Call
immediately if you or a
loved one has symptoms of a heart
attack. Time is heart muscle.