After surviving heart attack, Solon woman raises awareness

Kristi Cervantez was just six days away from running her first half-marathon when she had a heart attack.

At age 46, the Solon resident was apparently healthy. Training for the race, she had lost 20 pounds and was running 30 to 40 miles a week.

So on the day her heart almost stopped working, she thought she was just having an allergic reaction to a newly-prescribed medicine.

'I could not even have fathomed that it could be a heart attack,' she said. 'I had absolutely no symptoms previously.'

It was Easter Sunday, 2012. Earlier that day, Cervantez, a professional pianist and piano teacher, had played piano during an Easter brunch. But around 5 p.m., she was struck with terrible, searing pain in her chest, down her right arm and into her jaw. She started to hyperventilate.

When her husband asked if he should call 911, she said yes. That 'yes' saved her life, as did her neighbor's insistence she take the ambulance that arrived.

During the ride to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, her heart went into torsade, an irregular rhythm which causes the heart to beat up to 250 times per minute. The EMTs had to shock her heart back into a regular rhythm. At the hospital, she was immediately prepared for a procedure, and cardiologists placed two stents in her coronary artery.

Doctors believe she'd had a spontaneous coronary artery dissection, a rare condition that most often strikes young, active women. The inner lining of one of her arteries sheared off, and the flap caused a blockage.

Disparities in treatment

That was three years ago. Today, Cervantez looks back and acknowledges how fortunate she is to be alive.

'A lot of women die from that. They don't survive,' she said.

Statistics back her up. The Centers for Disease Control reports heart disease is the number one killer of women in America, and women are more likely to die from their first heart attack than men.

Findings in two separate studies in the Oct. 26 issue of the 'Journal of the American College of Cardiology' highlight gender disparities in heart disease treatment.

According to an analysis of 1.4 million heart attack cases, 4.5 percent of women under 60 died in the hospital, compared to 3 percent of comparable men. Researchers looked at patients who suffered a common kind of heart attack known as ST-segment elevation myocardial infraction. Women were less likely to receive a blood vessel-opening treatment known as angioplasty via stent than men — 84 percent of men received the treatment, while only 77 percent of women did.

The other study looked at medical records of more than 2,300 women and 1,200 men ages 18 to 55 in the U.S. and Spain who had a heart attack. Researches asked if physicians had told those with risk factors like diabetes and obesity about their risk of heart disease. Women were 11 percent less likely than men to be told they were at risk and 16 percent less likely to report their doctor discussed ways to reduce risk with them.

There are likely a variety of reasons behind the disparities. According to the National Institutes of Health, the blood vessels in a women's heart are smaller in diameter and more intricately branched than those of a man, which can lead to different symptoms and different patterns on a heart-screening test. This can lead to a wrong diagnosis or missed signs of an oncoming heart attack.

Chest pain is the most common symptom for both men and women. But women are more likely than men to experience other symptoms, such as jaw and back pain, shortness of breath and nausea. And one in five women under age 55 don't experience chest pain with a heart attack.

'I think a lot of women go, 'Oh, it's nothing, I'll get to it later,'' Cervantez says. 'But women should not dismiss it. If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone. Even if it turns out to be heartburn or something silly, don't dismiss the symptoms. Take the ambulance.'

More awareness is needed about the specific ways heart disease impacts women, she said, including into conditions like the one that struck her. That's why she agreed to share her story. She will speak Thursday at the Johnson County Go Red for Women Luncheon.

Hosted by the American Heart Association, Go Red for Women raises awareness and works for increased education for health care providers to recognize and treat heart disease in women.

Life goes on

Cervantez was admitted to the hospital again a year ago with less severe but similar symptoms — she had a coronary artery spasm, which is now being treated with medicine, and she hasn't had any issues since then.

Otherwise, she is healthy. She doesn't run anymore, because it worries her family, and she avoids activities like roller coasters, but she remains active.

She was devastated not to be able to run the half-marathon she'd trained for, but her sister ran it and brought her back a medal. She keeps that medal today, a marker of what she's overcome. Another thing she holds on to? A change in perspective brought on by her near-death experience. 'Small things don't bother me anymore,' she said. 'I'm pretty lucky. I have no scars.'

If you go

Johnson County Go Red For Women Luncheon

• When: 10:30 a.m. Thursday, vendor fair, silent auction, noon luncheon and keynote speaker

• Where: Coralville Marriott Hotel and Convention Center, 300 E. Ninth St., Coralville

• Cost: $40

• More information: (319) 378-1763 or jamie.jensen@heart.org

• The Linn County Go Red for Women Luncheon scheduled for Nov. 20 is sold out.