'Advocate for yourself': Young Manitoba woman shares heart attack story in hopes to help others

Jessica Solomon, 36, lying in a hospital after suffering a heart attack. Oct. 28, 2022. (Source: Jessica Solomon)

A Manitoba woman is hoping her recent experience of suffering a heart attack will prevent others from going through the same situation.

Jessica Solomon, 36, lives in Killarney, Man. This past weekend she said she woke up with some pain in her chest that she could feel going into her back.

Solomon suffers from GERD, which is repeated acid reflux that she takes medication for, and assumed that was causing her chest pain.

She and her husband had to do some grocery shopping so they drove into Brandon for a few hours.

"We stopped first for a little bit of lunch and I wasn't even able to eat because I was finding that I was still experiencing the same chest pain and it was making me really nauseous," said Solomon. "At that point, I started to get worried because usually, if it's heartburn, you can take some antacids and it starts to get a little better and it usually doesn't make me nauseous."

Eventually, she asked her husband to drop her off at the Brandon emergency room around 1 p.m. so she could figure out what was going on.

Solomon, who is a laboratory technician by trade, understands how the steps work at the hospital when someone comes in with chest pain – they get blood work and an ECG.

After getting that done, she said the doctors were also focusing on her GERD and were concerned about a potential stomach or esophagus issue.

She went for an X-ray and a CT scan, but everything came back fine.

Solomon said around 8:30 p.m. they still couldn't identify the reason for her chest pain and she was discharged. She did note she never received a second round of blood work and an ECG, saying it is usual practice to follow up with the patient four hours after the initial round to see if there are any changes.

"I kind of just took their word for it that it wasn't something cardiac, wasn't something serious."

Once she got home, she said she went straight to bed, but couldn’t fall asleep for any significant time, and added the pain started to get worse.

"Around 2 a.m., the last time that I got out of bed, I was standing out in the kitchen and I noticed the pain had travelled up into my throat, which it had done earlier in the day, but then it started going into my jaw."

With her medical background, Solomon said she knew something was seriously wrong.

She said she went to the emergency room in Killarney. "As soon as the lab girl got there and did the blood work and the first ECG; immediately, they knew what was going on I was transferred to the cardiac room and they started the process of getting me transferred immediately to St. Boniface."

When Solomon got to St. Boniface, she learned that she had an 80 per cent occlusion of her right coronary artery and she had a stent placed.

She is now back home and on the path to recovering and says she wanted to share her story so that other people her age and younger understand that heart attacks can happen to anyone.

"I do have risk factors for heart disease because I am overweight. I am diabetic…and I did have high blood pressure, but it was very well controlled with medication. So it was very unexpected."

She added her doctor also said he wouldn't expect somebody her age to have a heart attack.

"My thing is that I feel like when you're younger, when you're female, when you're overweight, all of these things kind of work against you in our health-care system, and you just really have to advocate for yourself," she said, adding you know your body better than anyone else.

The most common signs of a heart attack to watch for. Oct. 28, 2022. (Source: Heart and Stroke Foundation)

She wishes she had taken her own advice in the Brandon ER and feels it could have been caught sooner if the second round of blood work and the ECG were done.

A spokesperson for the Prairie Mountain Health Region said it can't comment on the specifics of the incident as they are currently investigating. The health region also said it will contact Solomon directly about her case.

Dr. Mahwash Saeed is a cardiologist in Winnipeg and said it is important that people understand that heart attacks can happen to anyone, starting in people in their 20s up to very elderly people.

"Elderly people tend to suffer from risk factors that put them at risk of a heart attack at a higher rate than younger people. But certainly, younger people can also have those risk factors," said Saeed. "Risk factors can include things like hypertension, high blood pressure, diabetes, family history…and smoking."

Saeed said it's important for people to live a healthy lifestyle by staying active and being in contact with a primary health-care provider for regular screenings for things like high blood pressure and diabetes.

She added, like Solomon, that people should advocate for themselves and be aware of their bodies.

"If you know something's wrong, go back again, and give them another chance to get it right."

If someone does experience a heart attack, Saeed said it's best to call 911 right away and not drive themselves to the hospital.

"You can consider chewing two baby aspirin if you have those at home. But the most important thing you can do to help your survival and help mitigate the effects of the heart attack is to call 911 to get to the right hospital at the right time."

Some common symptoms of a heart attack are chest pain, jaw and arm pain, shortness of breath, nausea and sweating.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation said it's also important to remember that women can present a heart attack differently than men.

"It’s important to be aware that women can experience symptoms that are not like the Hollywood version of a heart attack, with crushing chest pain – sometimes they can have no chest pain at all," said Christine Houde, Heart & Stroke Director of Health Policy & Systems in Manitoba, in an emailed statement. “Women may experience shortness of breath, pressure or pain in the lower chest or upper abdomen, dizziness, lightheadedness or fainting, upper back pressure or extreme fatigue. It’s important for women to not brush off these symptoms that are not normal for their bodies.”

Solomon hopes her story can make others more aware that they too could have a heart attack and what they should watch for if one happens.