Tag: women’s heart attacks

– posts here focus on women’s symptoms, signs and clinical procedures

How can we get female heart patients past ER gatekeepers?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 22 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Sometimes, people in my Heart Smart Women presentation audiences ask me if I’ve ever gone back to confront the Emergency physician who had misdiagnosed me in mid-heart attack with acid reflux and sent me home from the E.R. – despite my textbook symptoms of central chest pain, nausea, sweating and pain radiating down my left arm.  No, my heart sisters, I never did. But what did happen was, I think, even more satisfyingly juicy.   

Months after surviving that heart attack, and freshly fortified with Mayo Clinic cred after graduating from their annual WomenHeart Science & Leadership training for women with heart disease, I received an invitation to share what I’d just learned at Mayo to local Emergency Medicine staff.  I was offered one hour on the agenda of their annual Staff Education Day to talk about my own fateful misdiagnosis – and how, according to the Mayo Women’s Heart Clinic, that scenario might be avoided for future female heart patients like me: women who present with textbook cardiac symptoms but “normal” diagnostic tests.  Continue reading “How can we get female heart patients past ER gatekeepers?” →

Squishing, burning and implanting your heart troubles away

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

heart-700141_1280

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

Like the eminently quotable cardiologist Dr. John Mandrola once wrote on one of my favourite heart blogs:

“We urge patients to eat less, exercise more, and not to smoke. But when they don’t do these things, we still squish their blockages, burn their rogue electrical circuits, and implant lifesaving devices in their hearts.”

As a heart attack survivor, one of the Big Lessons for me has been that although my doctors can “squish, burn and implant” all they like, their heroic efforts do not address what originally caused this damage to my coronary arteries in the first place.   Continue reading “Squishing, burning and implanting your heart troubles away” →

‘Gaslighting’ – or, why women are just too darned emotional during their heart attacks

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 10 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

If you’re familiar with the term ‘gaslighting‘ , you’ll immediately grasp its practical application to everyday life. (Very similar reaction, in fact, to first hearing the word ‘mansplaining‘!   But I digress). The concept of gaslighting may ring bells for any woman who has been misdiagnosed in mid-heart attack, patted on the head and sent home from the E.R. in abject embarrassment. Continue reading “‘Gaslighting’ – or, why women are just too darned emotional during their heart attacks” →

“I started vomiting, and it turned out to be a heart attack”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 1 Comment


Maxine Levy was a heart attack survivor at age 41. Now in excellent health, this bank executive from Springfield, New Jersey credits her angioplasty, medication and, most of all, her healthy lifestyle and commitment to regular exercise to living well with heart disease.

She tells women to be strong. If you feel you are having a heart attack, be your own advocate, as she illustrates in this video interview.  She also says: Continue reading ““I started vomiting, and it turned out to be a heart attack”” →