To say Natasha Pinsent got a “new stent on life” would be an understatement.
At the time, she was a healthy and vibrant 42-year-old. She joked about a procedure that was performed on her in 2016 after she suffered a life-threatening event.
In late October of that year, she had a heart attack caused by a severe blockage in a main artery in her heart.
Pinsent had symptoms, but dismissed them as being an issue with her collarbone, as she had fallen on ice while out walking her pit bull, Pixel.
“I had pain for about two months in my collarbone area and would get short of breath after five minutes of walking Pixel,” she said.
“I was coming out of a bad marital situation and had been diagnosed with depression and with that comes fatigue. Because of that, the fatigue was diagnosed as, ‘Oh, that’s depression,’” she added.
She accepted that diagnosis and went on with her life, until she spoke with her uncle, a doctor who cautioned her that she may be having other issues surrounding her heart.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation says women in Canada are unnecessarily suffering and dying from heart disease because of inequities and biases that have resulted in a system that is ill-equipped to diagnose, treat and support them.
This may have led to what happened next when the worst possible scenario occurred.
On Oct. 31, 2016, as Pinsent was getting ready for bed, she went upstairs and experienced a new pain, one that centred in her chest and throat.
She described it as a sharp pain that came and went, similar to jamming your finger in a door.
“I was smart enough to take two aspirin just in case and got ready to go to bed. Now, I swallowed them instead of chewing them as is recommended,” she said.
“I Googled the sensation I was having in my throat and it told me it could be a heart attack, so I got up and drove myself to the hospital. That is something I wouldn’t recommend,” she added.
Pinsent said they took her in right away and performed bloodwork, an EKG and an X-ray just in case it was an issue with her previous fall and suspected collarbone issues. Her bloodwork came back showing her heart enzymes were elevated and registered 51.9. Normal is 15. The emergency staff repeated the bloodwork and sent her to see a cardiologist.
“I was joking with them, saying they must have tested someone else’s blood. I went in at 2:30 a.m. and by 4:30 a.m. I had no symptoms,” she said.
“They put nodes on my back, thinking the issue could be back there, and when the enzyme test came back the second time at 191, they knew I was having a heart attack.”
Because it was a weekend, she had to be admitted, and first thing on Monday they sent her to a catheterization lab where she was injected with dye through a small injection site on her wrist to see where the blockage was.
Both she and her family were shocked when they were shown the results, as they found a 90 per cent blockage, followed by a 50 per cent blockage.
It was determined she needed a stent. She even got to watch the procedure on a screen while the operation was performed.
“I was released the next day and started on my road to recovery,” she said, adding that the cardiac rehabilitation centre has a fantastic program with top-notch professionals ensuring the patient gets what they need to fully recover.
It was slow at first. A doctor and two rehab nurses walked with her on the track at Memorial University’s Field House to monitor her progress, but eventually she built her strength and stamina up to where she can live a normal life and enjoy long walks with Pixel, who figures prominently in her new life plan of becoming a dog trainer, working with mental health and therapy dogs.
Women viewed differently
For decades, almost all health research was done on men.
The assumption was that “one size fits all,” and what was learned formed the basis of clinical guidelines, diagnostic procedures and therapies that, even today, are widely used for both sexes.
These may be less beneficial and riskier for women, who are less likely to receive care from a cardiologist, or to be referred for treatments.
They are also less likely to be referred for cardiac rehabilitation by their doctor, and only half as likely as men to attend or finish a cardiac rehab program.
“There are important differences in women’s hearts that are irrefutable and still poorly understood,” Dr. Karin Humphries, scientific director of the B.C. Centre for Improved Cardiovascular Health, stated in a news release on Thursday.
“The types of heart disease that affect women can be quite different from men, and require a women-specific approach to appropriately diagnose and treat.”
Studies show that even though nine of 10 women have at least one of the risk factors for heart disease, most underestimate their risk.
Among women at the highest risk, more than half downplay that risk as low or moderate.
“Because women are generally caregivers and are likely in that mode, we dismiss things as being symptoms, as being something else,” Pinsent said.
“It is important we listen to our bodies and what it is telling us. Had I gone to sleep that night, I may not have woken up.”
Pinsent said her father also suffered from heart disease and had both a pacemaker and defibrillator put in after he, too, was misdiagnosed and sent home with muscle relaxants, something that only exacerbates heart issues.
“Part of my issue was genetics, but stress was likely also a huge contributor to what happened. We are not built to live in stressful environments,” she said.
“We can’t ignore our bodies, because if we do, it will shut down on us. You have to follow your body’s lead and if it doesn’t feel right, get to the doctor to find out why,” she added.
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A stark reality
“Women are under-researched, under-diagnosed and under-treated, under-supported and under-aware,” Yves Savoie, chief executive officer of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, stated in a news release Thursday.
“It’s unacceptable, and the situation has got to change. We need to smash this glass ceiling,” Savoie stated.
He outlined the following factors:
· A woman dies of heart disease in Canada every 20 minutes.
· Early signs of an impending heart attack were missed in 78 per cent of women, according to a retrospective study.
· Two-thirds of heart disease clinical research still focuses on men.
· Women are five times more likely to die from heart disease than from breast cancer.
· Women are more likely than men to die or have a second heart attack within the first six months of a cardiac event.
Savoie said the following needs to be a priority in heart health for women:
· Educate and equip health care systems and providers to think about, investigate and treat women’s heart disease differently than they do men’s.
· Make sure women get the same access to cardiac rehabilitation.
· Better support women so they can fully and deeply understand that taking care of others begins with taking care of themselves, and that they are supported by their families, workplaces and health care providers in doing so.
