December 14, 2019
I am 3 weeks 4 days post SCAD. At 29 years old, 34 weeks pregnant, and no family history of heart issues etc, I had a heart attack. I was having a regular weekend washing clothes getting the house ready for the upcoming week. That evening I noticed I was short of breath but was different then why I had been experiencing while pregnant. I then begin to sweat really bad and feel dizzy. I was then drove to the local hospital. My O2 was fine but my EKG didn’t look good and they believed I was having a heart attack.
They then transported me to the next county over to another hospital. I went straight to the cath lab where they went in through my leg and found SCAD. I however went into cardiac arrest where they had to defibrillate me 5 times. They put two stents in and then moved me to ICU where they was monitoring me and my baby girl.
They then decided I needed a higher level of care due to the pregnancy and airlifted me to another hospital that night where I still remained in ICU and had around the clock care for my baby from OB. I had a Cardiology team, heart failure team, and a OB team. Over the week my heart wasn’t getting any better due to it working for two people and they made the decision to do a c section and take my baby at 35 weeks. I delivered in the cath lab 5 days after my heart attack. I was so scared.
In total I spent 2 weeks in the hospital. Most of it in ICU but a few days on another unit. Now I experience a fear. A fear of it happening again, a fear of being alone, a fear of leaving my kids motherless. I feel I experience chest pain still but I know a big part of it is in my mind. This is by far the hardest thing I have faced in my 29 years of life. Just really need the support…..