Page 14 - Methodist Health System | Methodist Dallas Medical Center | Shine | Spring 2013

Sandra Sanchez knew she didn’t feel right.
“I was attributing the heaviness in my arm to stress
I was feeling about my brother’s heart problems,”
she says, recalling the incident six years ago. “I
wasn’t thinking about my heart.”
Sanchez mentioned her symptom to a
co-worker, who immediately took her to the
emergency department at Methodist Dallas
Medical Center.
Blood work revealed high levels of enzymes —
markers released into the bloodstream when a
person is having a heart attack.
Sanchez was taken to the cardiac catheterization
lab for further evaluation by Edwin Olson, MD,
independently practicing cardiologist on the
Methodist Dallas medical staff. The diagnostic
procedure confirmed a heart attack, but there
was good news: only minimal heart damage.
The apple doesn’t fall far
Sanchez’s heart problems most likely stemmed from
her family’s heart history. Both her father and cousins
died from heart disease, and at the time of Sanchez’s
heart attack, her brother was awaiting a heart
transplant.
“I didn’t expect heart problems for the women in
our family,” she says.
Family history coupled with extreme stress, like
she was experiencing, put Sanchez’s heart at greater
risk, Dr. Olson says.
“Sandra’s case was an atypical presentation for a
heart attack,” he says. “It’s an example for why women
should recognize that their warning signs are often
different than men’s.”
Don’t ignore the signs
Men and women both can experience chest pain like
an elephant standing on the chest, Dr. Olson says, but
women also experience symptoms like shortness of
breath, dizziness, weakness, upper back pressure, and
unusual fatigue.
Research by the National Institutes of Health also
indicates that women may experience symptoms
long before a heart attack. Looking back, Sanchez
realizes she may have had warning signs as much
as two years earlier.
“I was training for a race,” she says. “I’d walk
up one hill and feel heaviness in my arm. It
didn’t feel right, but I ignored it, hoping it
would go away.”
Sanchez admits that she was in denial. “Even
after the heart attack, when I’d talk to Dr. Olson,
I continued to refer to it as an ‘episode.’ He quickly
corrected me: It was a heart attack.”
Today Sanchez is listening to her body and
increasing her heart health awareness.
“I’m concerned for the women in my family,”
she says. “Educating them is a priority for me,
because heart disease does affect the women in
our family.”
Heart disease, the No. 1 killer of women, doesn’t
have to have the last word. Check out “A Women’s Guide
to Beating Heart Disease” at MethodistHealthSystem.org/
HealthLibrary. There you can also find a physician to help
you manage the condition.
Texas law prohibits hospitals from practicing medicine. The physicians on the
Methodist Health System medical staff are independent practitioners who
are not employees or agents of Methodist Health System or Methodist Dallas
Medical Center.
Knowledge is
HEART DISEASE
power
info
10 Methodist Dallas Medical Center • ❁ Spring 2013