By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
“I did get lucky. I wasn’t meant to die at that time,” said Minnie Metsch.
But she came close. Metsch was 24 when she went to the doctor because her chest felt achy.
“Just an uncomfortable feeling and when I would massage my chest, it would feel better,” she said.
Doctors found a heart murmur, decided to run an EKG, then dropped a bombshell.
“And I was told I had two weeks to live, that I had an aortic aneurysm that was ready to burst,” she said.
This after she felt a bit achy?
“Women don’t always get those typical symptoms, so women don’t get that crushing pain in their chest,” said Dr. Liliana Cohen.
Cohen teaches medical residents at Rutgers/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She says for years the medical community failed to recognize that women experience heart disease differently.
“There’s probably about 45,000 women a year in the U.S. under the age of 45 that have heart disease that have a heart attack. And those women are often unrecognized, under recognized and not treated,” she said.
Women having heart attacks report shortness of breath, cold sweat, unusual fatigue, nausea and dizziness, but that’s not what men typically tell staff in the ER. And women just aren’t assertive, according to Dr. Suvashini Gowda, a cardiac specialist.
“So the diagnosis was missed, was sent home at times, treated for some unrelated problem, at times. And they eventually died with either the consequences or actually with sudden cardiac death,” Gowda said.
Dr. Gowda says statistics show more women die of heart disease than cancer.
In New Jersey, an average 31 women die every day from heart disease and stroke. It accounts for almost 32 percent of all female deaths each year.
“The treatment still definitely lags behind the treatment men receive,” Cohen said. “So, don’t be afraid to come to the ER is what I always tell women. It’s always better to be in the ER and over-reactive than be at home dead.”
Minnie’s brother-in-law the surgeon sent her to the Texas Heart Institute where Dr. Denton Cooley had pioneered heart valve replacement surgery.
“They put in a mechanical valve that you hear clicking when it’s quiet,” Metsch said. “In December, I’m celebrating my 30th heartiversary.”
Cardiologists say women who feel the ER staff isn’t taking them seriously — don’t back down. Make them treat you. It’s your life.