TUCSON, Ariz. — Susan Smith suffered a heart attack in 2018, at the age of 70. But in living her busy life before that, she didn't realize what she was feeling was on the verge of a serious emergency.
"So for about a week I was having, what I now know as, symptoms of heart attack in women. But to me they were just a bothersome inconvenience," said Smith.
A pinch in her collarbone, light headedness, short breath, and feeling tired. But after those symptoms worsened, Smith finally contacted her primary care doctor's office. The woman who answered told her to contact her cardiologist or go to the ER.
"'I can't go to the emergency room, I have too much to do.' And she said, 'You can't do anything if your dead,'" said Smith.
That was the wake up call Smith said she needed. And after seeing her cardiologist, it was confirmed she was having a heart attack. Now reaching her second Heart Anniversary, she has a passion to tell women to not do what she did.
"Get educated, know the symptoms, they're so different from men's," said Smith.
How heart attacks are usually portrayed by male actors is typically the way most men may experience one. But for women, Smith said, more often than not, the symptoms are closer to what she experienced.
Smith is now spearheading a new monthly support group for women who are at risk or who have heart disease. Since heart disease is the number one killer of women, according to the CDC, Smith said peer-to-peer support has never been more important.
"The more women I talk to in Tucson about heart disease, they don't have anyone to talk to. They wanted a community of women just like them that have heart issues. So I knew there was a need and I wanted to fill it," said Smith.
After surviving her heart attack, Smith started blogging and speaking about her experience and recovery. Women Heart, a national organization out of Washington D.C., selects 50 women a year from across the country to go to the Mayo Clinic and be trained about all things women and heart disease. The organization then sends those women back home to educate and support other women in their communities.
Tucson Medical Center for Seniors offered Smith meeting space in its facility, marketing, and some staff. She now has the resources she needs to launch a support group to help the women she advocates for.
Each meeting will be on the fourth Wednesday of every month. The first one is February 26th at 5:30 P.M. in the TMC for seniors facility on 1400 N Wilmot.
