Woman shares lessons of the heart
The volunteers most committed to a cause often are people who have walked through the same tough times as those they try to help.
If you go
What: Second annual Go Red! Heart 5K Run & Walk in Memory of Robin Seay.
When: A registration and packet pickup party will be 5-8 tonight at the resort. The race is Saturday. Registration is 7-8:15 a.m. and the race begins at 9 a.m.
Where: Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina Pavilion, 20 Patriot's Point Blvd.
Cost: $35.
More info: www.muschealth.com/goredrun.
Michele Shinn is one such example and, as a result, is one of this year's local Go Red! For Women campaign stars.
The president of a local chapter of Mended Hearts, a national and community-based nonprofit organization of volunteers who reach out to heart disease patients, families and caregivers, had a heart attack in 1997 when she was 47.
Since then, she's been reaching out to heart patients, especially women, by visiting those whom health care workers at Roper Hospital identify as needing someone to talk to regarding recovery and life after an attack.
Shinn says efforts such as the
Go Red! For Women Day last week and this Saturday's Go Red! Heart 5K Run & Walk, are vitally important because the message about women and the differences they have when it comes to heart disease still isn't mainstream.
It certainly wasn't clear to her.
In the mid-1990s, Shinn was a smoker of 25 years, didn't eat well and led a stressful life. But she wasn't overweight and exercised about three times a week.
When Shinn had a heart attack, she didn't even know it.
"I had lots of signs, but didn't know what they were. ... And like a lot of women, I kind of brushed them off," she recalls, noting that the symptoms didn't happen at the same time.
"I had severe pain in my jaw. I had been seeing a periodontist and thought I might have an inflammation. ... I'd get on the treadmill at the gym and get a burning sensation in my throat, kind of like acid reflux, and when I lowered the speed on the treadmill, it kind of disappeared.
"Then I was awakened in the middle of the night two times with severe back pain that just lasted a few seconds."
But the second time was severe enough that in the morning she called her family doctor, who conducted an electrocardiogram and discovered she had suffered an attack. She was sent to the hospital, where near blockages were discovered in her right and left coronary arteries.
"They did a double bypass, and here I am today. I'm doing great," says Shinn, smiling.
The experience caused her to stop smoking, eat better, exercise even more regularly and start volunteering with Mended Hearts.
"I was visited by someone. It made a difference in my life, so now I'm an avid supporter of Mended Hearts," says Shinn, who has been the president for about three years of a group with about 40 active participants and 116 on the role.
And while she visits anyone, she's particularly interested in spreading the message to women that their symptoms are usually different from men's, who typically have pounding chest pain.
She also likes all heart patients to know that depression often is a side effect of going through a heart attack and surgery. Hers came three years after her attack.
"That's where Mended Hearts comes in. Knowing that people have gone through what you're going through and offering the gift of hope to heart disease patients, their families and caregivers."
