{"id":194999,"date":"2023-02-02T09:51:15","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T14:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=194999"},"modified":"2023-02-02T09:51:15","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T14:51:15","slug":"listen-to-your-heart-act-quickly-on-possible-heart-attack-symptoms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2023\/02\/listen-to-your-heart-act-quickly-on-possible-heart-attack-symptoms\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Listen to Your Heart\u2019: Act Quickly on Possible Heart Attack Symptoms"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Victoria
On Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, Victoria Boudreau is celebrating her one-year work anniversary at UConn Health where fellow work colleagues helped save her life from a dangerous STEMI heart attack.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Victoria Boudreau, 53, of Manchester was at the right place, at the right time \u2013 UConn Health\u2013 while working as a newly hired office assistant in Patient Access\/Revenue Cycle – when she started to have heart attack symptoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t feel good that day, but just kept going through my workday like a million times before,\u201d Boudreau shared. \u201cI thought maybe I was just tired or didn\u2019t drink enough water. But then I felt like I was continuously getting hot flashes.\u201d<\/p>\n

It turns out her heart was trying to tell her something. And it\u2019s a good thing Boudreau listened to her heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cI then wasn\u2019t fine. I felt very weird. I thought about driving home but knew I couldn\u2019t even physically make it to my car,\u201d said Boudreau. \u201cI talked to my supervisor and told her I don\u2019t feel good, I think I need an ambulance. My hot flashes wouldn\u2019t go away. I needed to go to the Emergency Department. Something was very wrong. My work colleagues called for help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patient Access Coordinator Barbara Lucente was the fellow employee who made the call to 9-1-1. \u201cI would like to give Barbara Lucente all the credit for her special lifesaving role!\u201d says Boudreau\u2019s supervisor Beth DeFilippis at UConn Health.<\/p>\n

Boudreau felt nauseous, was sweating even on the cold, rainy spring day of May 1, 2022, and along with her hot flashes she was feeling an unusual jolting sensation in her chest that she never ever felt before.<\/p>\n

From her UConn Health campus Munson Road building work location, a UConn Health ambulance arrived and whisked her to the UConn John Dempsey Hospital Emergency Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething is happening to me,\u201d she recalls telling the UConn Health nurse triaging her. \u201cMy first EKG was normal, but then in the midst of it, while the EKG leads were still attached to me, the jolts in my chest started happening again! My heart attack was all caught on the EKG.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EKG showed that Boudreau was having a dangerous ST-elevated myocardial infarction or STEMI heart attack caused by her heart artery being severely blocked and limiting blood flow to her heart muscle. For this type of heart attack, it is critically important for heart blood flow to be restored quickly by opening the artery blockage rapidly to prevent heart muscle damage and potentially death.<\/p>\n

She recalls her Emergency Medicine physician telling her that he was so glad she was at work at UConn Health while having the STEMI heart attack. She recalls him saying \u201cyou may not have made it to the hospital in time. Your heart could have stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Heart
The dangerous heart artery blockage causing Victoria’s heart attack.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just minutes after her heart attack, Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Peter F. Robinson<\/a> took her emergently from the ED to the UConn Health Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center\u2019s<\/a> Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory to perform a minimally invasive cardiac catheterization procedure, all through her wrist artery, to deploy a cardiac stent in her heart to successfully open the artery blockage. UConn Health is known for its longtime, pioneering leadership in this wrist technique called radial artery access angioplasty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole experience at UConn Health was just amazing,\u201d says Boudreau. \u201cThey always say everything happens for a reason. I am so glad I went to work that day, asked my supervisor for help, and chose to quickly go the UConn Health ED for care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back, Boudreau wishes she followed her primary care doctor\u2019s prior suggestion to start taking a statin cholesterol-lowering medication sooner before having a heart attack since annual blood draws flagged that her cholesterol was becoming elevated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should have listened to my primary care doctor sooner,\u201d she stresses as high cholesterol is a risk factor for developing heart disease and a predictor of possibly having a future heart attack if not controlled.<\/p>\n

Her message to others: \u201cWhen your doctor suggests medications, please take it! I wish I had listened. I don\u2019t want to have another heart attack and I am now being proactive with my heart health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following her heart attack survival, Boudreau now takes a daily statin to keep her cholesterol in check, and an additional cholesterol-lowering medication injection monthly to reach her optimal cholesterol goal.<\/p>\n

She also has conquered a major accomplishment to additionally lower her future heart attack risk: \u201cI quit smoking!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart attack was scary. I never thought a heart attack would ever happen to me!\u201d Boudreau says. \u201cBut a heart attack can happen to you. It happened to me at my young age and it was a reality check for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as a UConn Health employee, and now a heart patient, Boudreau is extra grateful for UConn. She celebrates her one-year of employment at UConn Health on Valentine\u2019s Day, February 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was treated like royalty at UConn John Dempsey Hospital,\u201d she shares. \u201cMy heart attack care was great. My UConn Health colleagues who helped care for me were all grateful I was there for care, and acted on my heart attack symptoms, and didn\u2019t wait to seek care or drive home. The Emergency Department and the Cath Lab was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Supriya Tigadi<\/a>, was her treating cardiologist at UConn John Dempsey Hospital that day and now remains her heart doctor. Boudreau says she \u201creally listens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPrevention of heart disease and heart attack is critical. We should start to focus at a young age,\u201d says Tigadi. \u201cHeart disease is becoming more prevalent among women and is now the number one cause of death. But early lifestyle changes accompanied with medications for cholesterol when appropriate can help prevent heart disease and heart attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tigadi, and Boudreau, both have a strong reminder to both men and women everywhere this Heart Month to always do one thing:<\/p>\n

\u201cListen to your heart!\u201d they both say.<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t ever ignore or delay emergency care for these heart attack warning signs<\/strong>: <\/strong><\/p>\n