SARASOTA COUNTY (WSNN) – One Sarasota woman eats right and exercises but still has a heart problem.
“You think about your future, and you think about your life,” heart attack survivor, Ginger Mace said while crying. “And that’s kind of what was going through my head.”
When Mace had a heart attack. Knowing her family history with heart disease, she says watched her diet and walked every day.
“I was in really good condition, but it was frightening for me,” Mace said.
According to a Harvard health article, the average age of a first heart attack for women is 72. Mace is in her early 60’s.
“I have been exercising for about three years, six to eight miles a day,” Mace said. “And on the weekends, maybe 12 miles a day. So really, very healthy, great diet, weight controlled, my labs were all good.
But in mid-May, last year, she had chest pain.
“It was intense, it was pretty severe, so much so that just walking back home a mile, I had to stop multiple times because the pain was so intense,” Mace said. “And then, I did have some radiating pain down my left arm, which I know is another symptom.”
She said she ignored it and didn’t seek medical care until it happened again the next day when she was supposed to go kayaking with her daughter.
“I didn’t want her to be upset, so I took a Nitro when I had chest pain, got my sandwiches, took them down to her, sent her off kayaking, and then drove myself to the ER, and I was having a massive heart attack,” Mace said.
The doctors told her she had one-hundred percent blockage.
“When you see the EKG reading, and it’s going like this (makes motions with her hand moving up), mine was all completely depressed and red all the way across,” Mace said. “I had one-hundred percent blockage of three other vessels as well.”
She ended up needing stents and open-heart surgery. Her message to others is to listen to your body.
“Don’t be afraid to go the hospital in the COVID environment because if your heart’s not working, COVID’s not going to matter anyway,” Mace said. “And while that mom-brain thing kicks in every time, but you have to take care of yourself. If you’re not healthy, you can’t take care of anyone else.”
Mace says she hopes her story can help raise awareness about your heart health.