Judith's heart journey

[Music playing]

[Text on screen: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Judith's heart journey]

Judith: I feel so grateful every walk I take.

[Text on screen:
Judith
Coronary artery disease patient]

Judith: I was in my early 40s and I started to have an arrhythmia, which then led to an ablation, which then led to a blockage in my heart. I was afraid to do anything. My kids were young and it scared them. I had such a difficult time. A cardiologist questioned why I was even in his office because I was a young woman.

I had traditional, typical male heart attack symptoms. Down the arm, crushing pain in the chest. I couldn't breathe. And so after my treatment there, I thought, I want someone to listen to me and I want to double check all this. So that's when I came to Ohio State, found Dr. Mehta, and it's been 180 degrees different.

[Text on screen: Laxmi Mehta, MD
Director of Preventive Cardiology and Women's Cardiovascular Health
Ohio State Wexner Medical Center]

Laxmi Mehta, MD: It's not uncommon for women to be overlooked as having heart disease because they don't present always the same.

Judith: She said, "OK, I want to do an angiogram. I want to see what's going on." And I just felt so heard.

Dr. Mehta: First we listen to what she was saying. We took a detailed history and then asked her like, what happens when she is active?

Judith: My main source of exercise is I walk. I would pick up my speed a little bit, and "ooh can't do that." 

Dr. Mehta: It really takes a lot of listening, a lot of questioning and then testing to understand better what is the person's condition.

Judith: She gave me confidence back in myself and she also gave me confidence in the medical community again. I've got coronary artery disease. I will forever take medicine, but I know that medication is ok and it's, I'm healthy, and so almost daily I go back there and walk at least a mile and it's just wonderful. If I do feel anything, I'm going to go to Dr. Mehta and we'll look at it.

[Text on screen: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
For more information, visit: wexnermedical.osu.edu/heart]

[Music fades]