Is Your Family Heart-Attack Prepared?

What every woman’s spouse and adult children need to know

A husband attuned
to heart health

Charles Groeller thought his wife, Mary Ann, 63, was having heart problems. Even though a stress test two months earlier was inconclusive, he was skeptical that her symptoms were caused by anxiety. Click here to read their full story.

Imagine your husband were having signs of a heart attack. Chances are, you’d know immediately what to do: Call 9-1-1 and give him an aspirin. Waiting for the ambulance, you’d toss his medications into a bag or snatch the list off the refrigerator. Once in the emergency department, you’d be able to describe his symptoms and his medical and family history.

“We often say that ‘wives save lives,’ ” says emergency physician Marna Greenberg, D.O., of Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network. Indeed, in most families the woman is the designated health-keeper—but only for everyone else. When Mom herself has a heart attack, there’s no Mom to take care of her.

Part of the problem is that women don’t always recognize their own heart attack symptoms because they’re different from those typical in men. “Women also have a unique way of describing their pain, and often dismiss their symptoms as stress or anxiety,” Greenberg says. Despite the fact that women have a greater risk for dying of a heart attack than men, many women don’t want to “make a fuss” by calling 9-1-1. Or they fear embarrassment if the symptoms turn out not to be serious.

That’s terribly dangerous, says Greenberg’s colleague, cardiologist Joan Homan, M.D. “Without treatment, 500 heart cells die every second in a heart attack, so it’s critical not to wait before calling for help. And don’t worry about bothering us with a false alarm. That’s why we’re here. It’s better to be embarrassed than dead.”

In fact, Homan says, most women experience symptoms a month or two before they actually have a heart attack—and might prevent the attack if they call their doctor at the first symptoms.

Heart attacks are very preventable, Greenberg says. More than 80 percent of them can be prevented with a healthy lifestyle. It’s also important to know your risk factors, including family history, blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol numbers.

“National studies show that women have not been treated for heart problems as readily as men in the past,” Greenberg says. “That’s changing now. Our MI Alert for Heart Attacks program at Lehigh Valley Hospital is designed to ensure that anyone with a heart attack will be evaluated and treated in the same way.”

Want to Know More about keeping your heart healthy? For a list of ways to prevent a heart attack, call 610-402-CARE or click here.

Published from Healthy You Magazine, March-April 2008

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