Listen to Your Heart & Body

Listen to Your Heart… & Body THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING CPR & YOUR HEART HEALTH

BY LALITA CHEMELLO

This February, for Valentine’s Day, Hope DeJong will be celebrating what she and her family now call her “Death Day,” for the seventh year. Although it has evolved into a light-hearted and well-meaning joke to the family, it originally was the yearly reminder of a terrifying ordeal for Hope and her family.

That fateful Valentine’s Day, Hope had fallen asleep on the couch while watching a movie to close out the festivities. The wellknown and unspoken rule of the DeJong home remained: you don’t wake mom up when she’s sleeping. And so, the family kept to that, and let Hope get her rest. But something was different this evening. Her two kids were already in bed, and her husband, Dave, was just getting ready to retire for the night himself when he says he heard Hope gasp or make a gurgling-like noise. When he approached the couch to check on her, he found her not breathing and unresponsive. He immediately called 9-1-1 and began chest compressions. Hope had gone into cardiac arrest, which is a problem with the “electrical” side of your heart, compared to a heart attack, which has to do with what Hope called “the plumbing.” She was under, or considered dead, for eight full minutes, which is incredibly detrimental to your brain function. She was placed in a medically-induced coma to help her body hopefully heal from the damage of the cardiac arrest, and give doctors time to assess the damage that was already done. Her husband was being prepared at times for the worst, from organ donations if she didn’t survive, to the potential massive deficits Hope could wake up with, if she did wake up. Yet, Hope’s story didn’t end in the hospital. She was, against many odds, able to walk out of the hospital after some time, but not without some issues. Doctors recommended speech and behavioral therapies to help work through some of her memory deficits, while also seeing a therapist to work through her feelings and experience of working through “getting back to normal.” There were hard days, days she admittedly said she regretted being saved. Being a fiercely independent person prior to her cardiac arrest, Hope found herself increasingly frustrated with having to need any help, to having to be monitored 24 hours a day in the beginning because of her memory issues, and not being able to take care of herself, let alone her own family. But time, and the help of loved ones as well as professionals, helped Hope defeat her guilty feelings and obtain a little humbleness, as she says.

BUT THERE’S ANOTHER THING HOPE ALSO HAD TO WORK THROUGH, AND THAT WAS FORGIVING HERSELF FOR POSSIBLY MISSING THE SIGNS THAT SOMETHING WAS WRONG IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Just a couple of months before Hope’s cardiac event, she had undergone a second surgery, to correct issues with a Bariatric procedure she had prior. It was following this surgery she had found out she had become malabsorptive and her potassium essentially bottomed out, leading to the cardiac arrest. From the little bits that Hope recalls before the event, she does remember being tired and quite often miserable following that surgery. There was also a dinner, where Hope attempted to bend down to pick up the bill for a dinner out with a friend, and both noticed she had a hard time getting back up. Were those memories definitive signs that something bigger was going on with Hope’s body? Maybe? Maybe not. But in the case of your heart, the organ vital to life as a whole, a bigger problem can sometimes present as some of the smallest things.

LEARN THE SIGNS, “LISTEN TO YOUR BODY”

Hope will be one of your, and anyone’s first advocate when it comes to taking care of yourself and talking with your physician about anything that might be bothering or plaguing you. While perhaps she didn’t see what most likely were signs before she went into cardiac arrest, she speaks with other survivors, as well as friends and family about the importance of listening to your body and checking in with health professionals when something doesn’t seem or feel right. As women, we are increasingly busy and known to take care of everyone sometimes, but ourselves, but that’s when the biggest things that may be wrong, remained unchecked. While unchecked they have a greater likelihood to become even larger problems. In other cases, we as women also have a terrible habit of comparing our pains to others. Hope says, “stop that!” Everyone’s bodies react to different problems and traumas, differently. While one ache may indicate a heart issue for one woman, it may just be a digestive issue for another, which is why sometimes, it’s so difficult in pinpointing specific problems. But don’t let that discourage you from speaking up or seeking help. If you have a hard time keeping track of strange symptoms, simply make a list (I personally have one on my phone), of things your body does that seem, “odd.” Bring them to your next appointment to ask about them, and hopefully get some answers. Don’t ever let fear or your inability to keep track of your body’s sometimes nonsense stop you from getting the help or evaluation you may need. Many of us women, as busy as we are, may find ourselves in fear of what that appointment could find, and what new ailment or life-long issue we may need to add to our plates to handle. Add in the anxiety-ridden potential of attending any medical facility in the pandemic, and it’s understandable why you may be hesitant to go. However, Hope can tell you from experience that the relief of knowing what’s wrong with your body, and receiving the treatment necessary to make life feel a little more “normal” will be worth the few weeks or months to adjust to yet another thing added to your plate. From heart health to cancer treatments to mental disorders…early signs and awareness, and seeking treatment can help make a large problem, a much smaller, more manageable one. And if the problem is a large one, there is support, like in Hope’s case, closer than you would think.

The American Heart Association’s signature women’s initiative, Go Red for Women, is a comprehensive platform designed to increase women’s heart health awareness and serve as a catalyst for change to improve the lives of women globally. It’s no longer just about wearing red; it’s no longer just about sharing heart health facts. It’s about all women making a commitment to stand together with Go Red and taking charge of their own heart health as well as the health of those they can’t bear to live without. Making a commitment to your health isn’t something you have to do alone either, so grab a friend or a family member and make a Go Red Healthy Behavior Commitment today.

Go Red for Women® Join the Movement - Sign Up Now! GOREDFORWOMEN.ORG

ABOUT CPR & WOMEN….

Hope was incredibly fortunate in that her husband, Dave, was so quick to perform CPR that night. 911 operators walked Dave through what to do while they waited for emergency services to arrive, which may likely attribute to Hope having a lot of her remaining brain function, even with being dead for eight minutes. Hope does say Dave managed to crack a couple of her ribs, which that, or even accidental breaking of ribs is common in CPR being performed on women. However, it doesn’t mean women shouldn’t receive CPR in these types of cardiac situations.

Do you know how to give or administer CPR, or have you ever administered CPR? Odds are you most likely have not, and luckily have never needed to. And the numbers truly support that summary. From a 2017 study by the American Heart Association, more than 19,000 people experienced cardiac events, and in those situations, only 39 percent of women received CPR from someone that happened to be around, while 45 percent of men were tended to with CPR, and the odds of surviving that cardiac event, favor men by 23 percent more. But why the massive discrepancy? As you have most likely heard in the past, women’s cardiac events do present in a different manner compared to men. In many cases, though, signs and symptoms leading up to cardiac events, whether a heart attack or cardiac arrest, are things women tend to brush off. It’s just a pain. It’s probably not a big deal, they might think to themselves. But in many cases, it is a much larger issue. And society downplays the issue too, as bystanders have admitted that women may “fake” or overdramatize an incident that really is a serious heart event. The other problem, in a world where we’re still trying to navigate our rights, limits and feelings following the #MeToo movement, make many people more hesitant to initiate CPR on women. The AHA attributes this to a bystander’s fear of potentially inappropriately touching or exposing someone, along with a fear of a potentially being accused of sexual assault. Some bystanders also have felt they could hurt a woman (which does happen in some cases), or that breasts make CPR more challenging. In late October of 2020, the AHA provided new guidelines to help address and tackle disparities in administering CPR in cardiac events, especially for women, highlighting that the life-saving maneuver is key to survival of sudden cardiac arrest.

How do you even know if someone needs CPR? According to Dr. Clifton Callaway, professor and executive vice chair of emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, CPR needs to begin if someone is unconscious and does not appear to be breathing properly. In that case, you would immediately initiate “compression-only” CPR, which is best suited for adults and teenagers.

THE STEPS: 

Call 9-1-1 and immediately begin chest compressions. The emergency operator can walk you through the motions if you are unsure what to do. 

Press hard and fast with both hands into the center of the chest, down at least 2 inches with the full weight of your body. Remember, you’re pumping the blood through the body since the heart is not. You are the heartbeat.

The “optimum rate of compression” is 100 to 120 beats per minute (or about 2 pumps a second). If that’s hard to keep track of, “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees, Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” or the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I go?,” all fit into that specified bpm range. 

Perform compressions until emergency help arrives.

SIGNS THAT YOU MAY BE HAVING A STROKE:

* Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body * Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding * Sudden trouble seeing or blurred vision in one or both eyes * Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination * Sudden severe headache with no known cause You should never wait more than five minutes to dial 9-1-1 if you experience any of the signs above. Remember, you could be having a stroke even if you’re not experiencing all of the symptoms. And remember to check the time. The responding emergency medical technician or ER nurse at the hospital will need to know when the first symptom occurred.

SPOT A STROKE F.A.S.T.

Face Drooping, Arm Weakness, Speech Difficult, Time to Call 911