WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | 86-Year Old Recovering From 2nd Heart Attack

86-Year Old Recovering From 2nd Heart Attack

86 year old Marie Lane is diligent about her morning workouts. This exercise isn't just making her stronger, it's also helping her recover from her second heart attack in twenty years. She had her first one when she was 61 years old. "I plowed in the garden all day. I went in to get me something cold to drink, I sat down, and it was like you set a house on my chest," exclaimed Marie Lane.

Marie was rushed to the hospital where doctors discovered she was having a heart attack. Surgeons performed two angioplasty procedures to open up blocked arteries, and sent Marie home. After that, she quit smoking, changed her diet, and started exercising more. Marie knew her health scare could not be taken lightly. " A heart attack is not funny," she said.  "it's nothing to be sneezed at." 

Marie has remained relatively healthy until this past November, when she suffered a second attack. And she's not alone, researchers said the number of women having heart attacks is on the rise. "Women may have fewer heart attacks before the age of 40, but after the age of 45, they catch up very quickly, and actually surpass the number of men having heart attacks, " explained Cardiologist, Dr. Dieter Gunkle.

Dr.Gunkle has been a cardiologist for 31 years now. He says most women don't even realize they are having a heart attack, because their symptoms are different than men's. Women usually feel more fatigued and are lethargic. Shortness of breath can sometimes accompany those symptoms too, even if the victims have hardly been moving. Women also have fewer chest pains than men.

More than a half million women every year have heart attacks. That number is almost surpassing the number of heart attacks in men.

Researchers have confirmed there is a link between heart attacks and women in menopause, leading them to believe the risk may be partly due to hormones and other factors. "There's perhaps more obesity in women, women have smaller blood vessels,  and they have more co-morbidities --other medical problems -- this all adds up to an increased risk," said Dr. Gunkle.
 
Having a family history of heart disease or diabetes can put women at a higher risk too. Doctors believe knowing your risk factors, and changing your life style, like Marie did, can save your life. " I think God has been mighty graceful to me to let me live to be this old and to pull me through this much," she exclaimed.

If you have one heart attack, your chances of having another increase by 30 percent. There are medications, like Plavix, that can help people who are at a high risk for a heart attack.  Those pills, called statin drugs, can lower a person's risk by 55 percent. But a daily regimen of aspirin is usually doctor's number one choice in helping to prevent heart attacks from occuring.

Reported by: Melanie A. Ruberti, mruberti@wtoc.com