Avoiding a 2nd heart attack: Doctors push heart health and healing amid pandemic uptick

Avoiding a 2nd heart attack: Doctors push heart health and healing amid pandemic uptick
That was certainly a fear for Domonique Reagan when a heart attack struck her out of nowhere last Christmas Eve.

“Severe sharp pains in my chest, then it went up to my shoulder and then to my neck. And once it got to my neck, that’s when I said that I needed to go to the hospital,” said Reagan as she took a morning walk through a park in Arlington. “I thought it was COVID! A heart attack was the last thing from my mind.”

Reagan said she had no real warning signs. At just 33 years old, she was healthy, active and even tended to eat right on most days.

The mother of five said she was shocked when she got the diagnosis at Texas Health Arlington Memorial that day and felt lucky to bounce back quickly from the scare. However, as Reagan was ready to get back to her normal life, perhaps a bit scaled back given her recent situation, a fellow member of her church who happened to be a nurse gave her the advice to not look past her recent episode so quickly.

“She told me one of her former patients decided not to be monitored while exercising after his heart attack. He died at the gym,” Reagan told leaders at Texas Health. “He didn’t think he needed cardiac rehab. I didn’t want that to be me, so I immediately signed up for it.”

Knowing too that her mother had died from a heart attack at just 45 and her grandfather just a few years prior, Reagan began cardiac rehab at the hospital with specialist Shelby Schroeder. The multi-month program would take her through monitored exercise and slowly work her heart back into shape. After all, Schroeder reminds patients, the heart is a muscle that needs to be exercised.

Schroeder said that reminder and the reminder to rehab from a heart attack is extra important now as heart attacks are not necessarily one and done.

“[A first heart attack] does give them an additional risk factor,” said Schroeder.

A study published by the American Heart Association in August of last year found that of the small percentage of heart attack survivors who were readmitted to the Cleveland Clinic within 90 days for a second episode, about half died within five years. Study leaders also added that the greatest risk was within the first two weeks of the first heart attack, meaning recovery must start quickly.

That may be good advice for many, as there are indications of more people, including younger ones, experiencing these episodes.

A February study published by the Nature Medical Journal found long-term heart disease risk was significantly higher for the patients they studied who had recovered from COVID-19, even those who had relatively mild COVID cases. A study published by the Jama Network just this month also found that occurrences of heart attacks and strokes were way up since the pandemic began, prompting the American Heart Association to issue a red flag warning.

Schroeder said rehabbing properly and keeping the heart healthy is simply vital.

“The same with any type of injury in your arm, your leg, the best way you can actually heal is with that enduring, long exercise intervals,” said Schroeder.

Reagan said she wishes her recovery and return to life as usual were moving faster, but she wasn’t about to take any chances with so many factors seemingly working against her on this one.

“I mean, it’s worth it,” she said with a smile, adding that her kids have done a great job stepping up to help mom along the path to recovery.

For Reagan, one heart attack was already too many, and she doesn’t intend to risk a second one.