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OAK BAYNEWS Friday, February 14, 2014
www.vicnews.com
TAKE HEART Commonly misdiagnosed, heart disease remains the No. 1 killer of women Christopher Sun News staff
Don Denton/News staff
Mohinder Doman, who is celebrating the 10th anniversary of her heart surgery, hugs the heart-shaped pillow she was given after her surgery. Heart patients are given the pillow to hold against their chest when they have to cough in order to minimize movement of the chest area following surgery.
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“How could I have had a number of them?”
■■■ For almost four years, Mohinder Doman didn’t know what was wrong Heart disease is the number one with her. killer of women, said Carolyn Thomas, It started in 1999 with what she who hosts the annual Cardiac Cafe at thought was indigestion and bouts the University of Victoria. with a cold. The indigestion lingered A heart attack survivor herself, and she started feeling increasingly Thomas leads a lecture, where she fatigued. She visited numerous shares her experience and knowledge doctors, each one telling her it was gained from the WomenHeart Science nothing to worry about, attributing and Leadership Symposium at the her ailments to aging. She was in her Mayo Clinic. She said the 50’s at the time. symptoms of heart disease Tightness in her “I was for women and men are chest, joint pains in her very different and it is shoulders and swollen thinking, if you common for doctors to feet followed, but have (a heart misdiagnose women. repeated doctor visits “Up to 40 per cent of yielded nothing but pain attack), you die.” relief medication and a - Mohinder Doman women experiencing a heart attack don’t have recommendation to rest. chest pains at all,” Thomas “There was one said. “It’s quite different than what particular day … I was at home and I we see in Hollywood movies, where a was just so ill,” Doman said. “I could person clutches their chest and falls hardly move and there was no point in going to see a doctor because I had down.” Thomas was able to walk and talk during her heart attack. already been many times and they Thomas had her heart attack in 2008 always dismissed me.” when she was 58. She was out for a Doman’s health was in decline. walk when she experienced crushing She had difficulty standing in the chest pain, but it was the pain on shower and the steam affected her the left side of her arm that made breathing. She gained weight, was her wonder if she was having a heart constantly tired and turned down a attack. She didn’t think it was possible wedding invitation because she felt too weak to leave home. She was also as she was a distance runner and lived a healthy, active lifestyle. bruising easily. “I did go to emergency, because of One day, a friend who was a nurse made a surprise visit, shocked by her the arm pain,” Thomas said. She was told by the emergency physical condition, she took Doman room doctor that it was just acid to see a doctor who diagnosed her reflux. “I then thought this acid reflux with congestive heart failure. was brutal. How can people handle She learned through an angiogram this?” that she had multiple heart attacks. “I thought this couldn’t be possible because I was thinking, if you have (a PLEASE SEE: heart attack), you die,” Doman said. Lucky to be alive, Page A10
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