Sandy Knew Something was Wrong...
61-year-old Virginia “Sandy” Minster had all the signs and symptoms of heart disease. Her mother died of a massive heart attack at age 55, and her father suffered from heart failure and died at 57. Sandy, herself, had been treated for hypertension. Despite these warnings, Sandy’s heart disease was never diagnosed – a common problem among women with cardiac issues. Sandy changed doctors several years ago, and, after lengthy discussions with the new physician about her health and family history, he took her off her medication for hypertension. He felt weight loss and exercise could have the same effect. Over the next few months, Sandy began exhibiting strange symptoms, including severe heartburn, squeezing pain across her chest and shoulders, jaw pain, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, dizziness and memory loss. 

She and her husband tracked her symptoms, and shared all of them with her doctor, who, after a brief physical exam, advised her that she was suffering from heartburn and stress, prescribed an over-the-counter medication for acid reflux, and advised her to lose some weight, and exercise to help lower the stress in her life. Sandy believed there was something more; that her symptoms were too severe to indicate just heartburn and stress. But she doubted her own intuition, and believed that her diagnosis must have been accurate.

A week later, Sandy woke with severe heartburn, and looked for whatever she could find to alleviate the pain. But nothing helped. She found herself winded and disoriented, and began having chest pain. She woke her husband and said, “Something is wrong. Take me to the emergency room.” The hospital ER confirmed that Sandy had suffered a heart attack. She was transferred to Deborah Heart and Lung Center for open-heart surgery. “You know your body,” Sandy stated. “You know when something is wrong. Listen to your body and trust your intuition."