Arizona woman warns of dangerous silent heart attacks for postpartum women
Valley woman survives silent heart attack
After surviving a silent heart attack, Valley woman Heather Sparks and her doctor encourage others to emphasize the importance of early detection and treatment.
PHOENIX - A silent heart attack can hit when you least expect it, and it happened to an Arizona woman who is warning others of the dangers.
Heather Sparks' day at the amusement park was cut short due to a silent heart attack.
What they're saying:
"I noticed I felt some difficulties in my upper region, pressure in my throat," Heather said. "At that point, I looked at my son and made a beeline to the first aid office."
Heather is now able to walk right in for her regular appointment with Dr. Sirisha Vadali at Honor Health, but Heather says she really had to advocate for herself to get the right testing.
"I felt an excruciating pain in my back, and it felt like someone was stabbing me with a hot iron," she said.
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Dr. Vadali, cardiovascular disease specialist at Honor Health, explains how common this is.
"What happened with Heather happens with a lot of women, unfortunately, and they dismissed it as maybe dehydration and maybe Heather was feeling anxiety around her situation," said Dr. Vadali.
It wasn't. She was having a specific type of heart attack that often impacts women after pregnancy.
"They found something called spontaneous coronary artery dissection, otherwise known as SCAD, which is a tear in the heart arteries for young women," said Dr. Vadali.
Heather's recovery
She got a stent in her case and is doing fantastic now.
"We are jumping horses, camping, we do walks, my husband walks with me in the evenings to get exercise in," said Heather.
Why you should care:
Heather and Dr. Vadali's advice: Listen to your body.
"My biggest advice to women is to take action, to advocate. I would say that it's so easy today in our lifestyle to get so busy and not acknowledge something different in our bodies," said Heather.
"If you know that something doesn't feel right, you should get checked out right away and here's the deal, you can go get an EKG done and that is a fowl-proof way of saying everything's fine and that's a cheap way of knowing you're not having a heart attack," said Dr. Vadali.