“My grandmother died at 67 of heart disease and she was a diabetic, my mother died at 59 from heart disease, my sister who was two years older than me died at 51 from heart disease, my oldest sister who is five years older than me had her first heart attack in 91,” says Cheryl Walters.

Having tragically lost so many loved ones to heart disease, Cheryl Walters refuses to be its next victim. She had a pulling sensation in her chest and was completely fatigued…doctors dismissed her complaints. But, instinctively Cheryl knew something was wrong. She went for a comprehensive heart health check-up at the Women’s Heart Center at St. Joseph’s.

“They found that the LAD which is the left artery descendent from my heart was over seventy percent blocked,” says Cheryl.

Women heart centers, like the one at St. Joseph’s, are opening up across the country. They’re raising disease awareness, screening women and saving lives. “Heart centers can be in major cites and they can be in smaller communities and not all of them are the same, some of them are programs that do increase awareness in the community, some of them are in association with doctors offices, I think what women need to know is that they need to shop around, a woman needs to find the place where she is most comfortable,” says Dr. Nieca Goldberg of the American Heart Association.

Heart health centers provide the full range of diagnostic tests, including tests that are specifically designed to detect blockages or other changes in a woman’s heart.

“The screening takes anywhere from an hour to two hours for a given woman, we have a team and we follow a very regimented model with regards to doing tests, physical exam, history and we pay attention to what woman are telling us, so we are really concentrating and focusing and searching and looking for any risk factors of cardiovascular disease for women,” explains Dr. Robert Faillace of St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center.

And acknowledging a woman’s symptoms is usually half the battle. Typically, women do not experience the “classic symptoms” of a heart attack, including crushing chest pain or shortness of breath. Their symptoms are more subtle-- fatigue, backache, indigestion..and are frequently missed.
“We have to have more of awareness in terms of the teaching that women heart disease symptoms are different so that doctors won’t miss the diagnosis and something even bigger is we need some research regarding gender on women and heart disease,” says Dr. Goldberg.
As a result of Cheryl’s exam at the women’s heart center, doctors determined she needed a stent to take care of the blockage. Today, she’s got her energy back and says without the center, she could have become another devastating statistic.
“It really saved my life, maybe I wouldn’t have died but I would have had a heart attack, and you know once you have a heart attack that damage cannot be reversed and because of my family history it could have been very devastating for me,” says Cheryl.

Dr. Faillace says that any woman age eighteen or over would benefit from a screening to recognize any risk factors early on. And if heart disease does run in your family, a comprehensive check-up at a heart health center should be a definite on the to-do list.

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