While at home Teresa began to feel unwell. Initially she got a feeling of breathlessness and a very severe headache between her two eyes which passed after about three minutes. Later that afternoon she was outside in the garden reading a magazine when the pain in her head started again. She thought she was getting a migraine and came in to get a painkiller, when she also experienced a crushing pain in her chest.
Her husband Eddie rang the doctor, who advised him that she needed to go to hospital immediately. Teresa lives 3 minutes from her local hospital, so Eddie drove her there, she was seen within minutes and admitted straight away. “My one abiding memory was when I was being wheeled through a door, all I could see was a banner across the door that said, ‘resuscitation room’, and that frightened the living daylights out of me.”
The pain in her head and chest did not stop until she was given aspirin in the hospital. Numerous tests were conducted including blood tests and an ECG and shortly afterwards, she travelled by ambulance to Dublin for further treatment, “blue lights flashing all the way up the road.”
My one abiding memory was when I was being wheeled through a door, all I could see was a banner across the door that said, ‘resuscitation room’, and that frightened the living daylights out of me.
She had a doctor, nurse and paramedic with her in the ambulance. “It was a whole team of women in the ambulance with me. They were absolutely brilliant.” Another team was waiting for her in the Mater Hospital. She was very calm as she felt she was in the best place that she could be. “I actually thought I was having some kind of brain haemorrhage. I really didn’t think it was a heart attack. The pain in my head was excruciating and I felt like getting sick. I’ve had migraine before when I was pregnant, and it was nothing like this. The crushing pain in my chest was very, very sore, but I can’t begin to describe the pain in my head.”
Teresa had an angiogram which is a test that looks at the blood supply of your heart. It helps the doctor identify if there is any narrowing inside the coronary arteries. It identified a 70% blockage in one artery and a 30% blockage in the other. The 30% blockage was treated with medication and angioplasty treatment was used to insert a stent to treat the larger blockage. Afterwards Teresa was transferred back to her local hospital by ambulance and was back in a bed in the Coronary Care unit that evening.
“On that day, everything that was that was supposed to work, worked perfectly. I couldn’t fault the care that I got that day. I was very, very lucky. Everyone was so kind, talking to me and keeping me calm.”
It was a whole team of women in the ambulance with me. They were absolutely brilliant.
After her procedure Teresa spent 5 days in hospital. For the first 4 weeks after returning home she was doing well in her recovery. She was following medical advice and getting out for daily walks, building up slowly from 5 minutes a day for the first week.
She then experienced some other health issues, which were not heart related, and began to feel anxious and overwhelmed by everything. She phoned the Coronary Care unit for advice who recommended that she avail of some counselling, and they referred her to the Irish Heart Foundation.
Teresa found the Irish Heart Foundations Nurse Support Line to be a huge help to her and a great source of practical advice. “The nurse was absolutely brilliant. She was able to help me put things into perspective and gave me tasks that I needed to have done for my next medical appointment and so on, because I literally seemed to have one appointment after another.”
The nurse was absolutely brilliant. She was able to help me put things into perspective and gave me tasks that I needed to have done for my next medical appointment and so on, because I literally seemed to have one appointment after another.
She joined the Irish Heart Foundation Heart Support Network Group on Facebook and found excellent information on the Irish Heart Foundation website. In September “I was on the Facebook page, and I saw something about the Her Heart Matters campaign on the website. I made sure to sign in that day and watched the video, and I read all of the articles that were on the page. Even now if there’s anything new on it, I will have a good read to see if it is it relevant to me. I have found the whole experience of using the Irish Heart Foundation very, very positive”.
Teresa describes her heart attack as “expected but unexpected,” given her family’s history of cardiac issues. Her father had cardiomyopathy (a condition that affects the heart muscle) and survived a heart attack at the age of 65. Sadly, his three siblings died suddenly due to heart-related problems. Teresa’s younger brother also experienced a heart attack in 2000 when he was just 37 years old.
After her brothers’ heart attack, when Teresa was 40, she was advised that her heart health be checked, and she had a number of tests including a 24-hour blood pressure monitor and blood tests. It was found that she had high blood pressure, so her GP put her on blood pressure medication with a beta blocker, and she had annual checkups.
She was generally well in the following years but recalls an episode in work when she fainted due to having low blood pressure. Tests were conducted, which included an echo cardiogram and sleep apnoea test, and her blood pressure medication was changed.
I have found the whole experience of using the Irish Heart Foundation very, very positive.
In October 2023, Teresa experienced “pinprick type pain on my left side. It was, you know, like a stabbing pain occasionally. There was no pattern to it.” Her medications were adjusted again, and Teresa was sent for a cardiac stress test, which she passed. Although the cardiologist didn’t think it was cardiac related, he referred her for an echo test which she was due to have in August 2024.
Teresa often discusses health and heart related issues with her friends. Her advice is that “your health is like you’re running a car. You need to keep it keeping it running properly.”
She is very aware of her heart health and how heart disease can affect women. She worked as a guidance counsellor for the long-term employed where “I told my HR manager when I went back to work that I thought it was important that a piece was done on women’s heart health, because of the employee age profile, and because it was predominantly women that worked there.”
After her heart attack, Teresa was off work for nine months. During that time, she completed her cardiac rehab programme and worked on her fitness levels. She was feeling well and returned to work on a part-time basis but found it too overwhelming “and would be totally washed out by Thursday.” She felt she was constantly exhausted and did not have the energy to continue in her current role. She decided to retire this year, and her priority is very much on her own health and keeping herself well. “Fatigue is very much an issue. Some days are better than others.”
Teresa is now rebuilding her physical fitness levels, had been at a Pilates class that morning and was heading out for a walk in the afternoon. She is enjoying retirement. Her four children live locally, and she has three grandchildren that keep her busy. “My focus now is that I have a long life to live and I’m going to enjoy it.”
My focus now is that I have a long life to live and I'm going to enjoy it.
2025-06-20
