 June Mundell has one very good reason for recommending the Healthy Heart Exam to friends and family. It may have saved her life.
Mundell, 72, says she really had no idea her heart was in trouble. With the help of a local dieting group, she had shed 25 pounds through a walking and low-fat eating program and was feeling fit.
Mundell does recall occasional chest pain and shortness of breath as she walked the hills near her Snohomish home, but she attributed these symptoms to her age. Her blood pressure was normal; she considered herself healthy.
“I’m still surprised that so much was wrong with my heart,” she says. “Apparently, most of the problem was congenital. I’d had a hole between the chambers for 72 years and never knew it.”
Indeed, curiosity about her cholesterol levels was what prompted Mundell to go in for the Healthy Heart Exam. But her resting EKG reading, a standard component of the exam that records the electrical activity of the heart, came back with abnormal results. She took it to her physician right away.
A month later – after additional testing and follow up with her physician, cardiologist and cardiac surgeon – Mundell underwent extensive heart surgery that included five-bypasses, as well as repairs of her mitral valve and the congenital “hole” that was discovered between the two upper chambers of her heart.
Less than four months after Mundell received her Healthy Heart Exam results, she is back to her walking program though she takes it a little slower than before. “Fortunately, I didn’t have a heart attack. The Healthy Heart Exam and the medical team that repaired my heart helped to prevent it.”
Return to Healthy Heart Exam
|
