Pre-hospital care: can paramedics influence your cardiac future?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Helen A. (pictured here) is a longtime Heart Sisters reader from North Carolina. (My other regular readers may remember Helen’s heart patient story a few years ago in The Handlebar-Gripping Cardiac Symptom). Helen asked me recently if I’d ever written about the influence of paramedics on subsequent medical care. Here’s how she started her message:

“We called 911 because I was having heart attack symptoms, but by the time we arrived at the hospital, the paramedic had decided nothing really serious was going on, and he made me get out of the ambulance and walk into the Emergency Department.” 

Unfortunately for Helen, however, something “really serious” was in fact going on. Continue reading “Pre-hospital care: can paramedics influence your cardiac future?” →

Dear Carolyn: “Two sisters, one ‘heart-charged’ cardiac diagnosis”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 14 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

.            .Bethany (left) and Hannah Keime (right)

As part of our occasional “Dear Carolyn” series of personal patient perspectives shared by my readers, today I’m introducing you to the 13th of our series: two young Florida women, Bethany and Hannah Keime, sisters diagnosed four days apart with a serious cardiac condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).  As described by Mayo Clinic cardiologists, HCM is defined as a heart muscle that becomes thickened, making it harder for the heart to pump blood.

Some people with HCM have few if any warning symptoms, while others may experience palpitations, shortness of breath, fainting or chest pain (especially during exercise) or changes in the heart’s electrical function. Those changes can result in dangerous irregular heart rhythms or sudden death. Because HCM is usually genetic (but not always – Mayo Clinic suggests that “not everyone with HCM has a currently detectable gene mutation”), people with one parent diagnosed with HCM have a 50% chance of having the genetic mutation. Parents, children or siblings of anybody diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy should ask their doctor about screening for this disease. Here’s how the Keime sisters individually explained their shared diagnosis: Continue reading “Dear Carolyn: “Two sisters, one ‘heart-charged’ cardiac diagnosis”” →

In praise of slow in a speeded-up life

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 13 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

Many years ago, when I worked in corporate public relations, I was on a plane at least two mornings a week, flying off to Very Important Meetings with Very Important People to discuss their Very Important Projects. At the Vancouver airport bookshop one day, I picked up what I thought would be just the perfect thing for somebody as busy as I was: an audiobook of one of those ‘Ten Best Business Books Condensed’.  What a great idea!  I could save time cramming the Ten Best Business Books into my overstuffed brain while driving out to the airport and back! 

But something hit me – a “Eureka!” moment, somewhere between Total Quality Management and Seven Habits:

“This is exactly what’s wrong with my life!” 

Continue reading “In praise of slow in a speeded-up life” →

Note to self: tell med students about women’s unique cardiac risk factors!

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 7 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

There’s an old saying about public speaking that I like: every planned presentation actually consists of three different talks:

  • 1. the talk we plan to give
  • 2. the one we actually give
  • 3. the perfect one we give in the car on the way home

That’s how I felt as soon as I ended my recent one-hour Zoom session about women and heart disease for New York medical school students. It was only after our recorded session ended that it hit me: “Oh, no!  I didn’t mention pregnancy complications!”    

This is a known cardiac risk factor that’s unique to women – and in my case, was likely the culprit behind my own heart attack.       .    Continue reading “Note to self: tell med students about women’s unique cardiac risk factors!” →