logofg

TEMOIGNAGES
Architect from Brest, France

Pascale, 43 years old

placeholder image

“I didn’t have any chest pain when I had my heart attack. I had gastric pain deep in my sternum and I thought it was bad digestion. I also had pain in my back. I thought it was my spine, which had already been hurting. I tried to soothe the pain with a hot water bottle, but it still spread. I wasn’t worried, but one day I had to stop in the middle of climbing the stairs because I was too out of breath. I told myself I needed to stop smoking. But I never thought about my heart. At the time, I was stressed and not sleeping much. Then one day, I went out to run errands and felt an odd pain in both my arms. It wasn’t my muscles. I felt like something was pressing on me. I told myself it was stress. I took a pain killer and spent the rest of the day feeling quite unwell. In the evening, I had chest pain between my ribs, but I didn’t want to bother the emergency medical services with that. I woke up at 1 a.m. in pain and my daughter insisted on taking me to the hospital. They took an x-ray of my lungs and then an electrocardiogram. And then everybody rushed into the room. I was having a huge heart attack. They did a coronary angioplasty right away and put in a stent. If I had waited any longer, I wouldn’t be here anymore.”

 

SEE ALSO

placeholder

Cendrine, 34 years old

Cleaner from Béthune, France

“My leg was hurting for several days. Then slowly my foot started turning blue. I ended up not being able to put any weight on it. My doctor sent me to the hospital. I’ve been smoking around one and a half packs a day since I was 16 and I’ve been taking the pill for about the same amount of [...]

READ MORE

placeholder

Hélène, 26 years old

Medical Resident (Lille, France)

I’m a resident in my fifth semester and plan to specialize in emergency medicine. Something I recently experienced during a shift in the emergency department led me to do my thesis on coronary syndrome in women. This illness has been on the rise among women for many years. While men receive good [...]

READ MORE

placeholder

Marlène, 37 years old

Medical secretary (Lille, France)

I didn’t have any health problems before my pregnancy in 2009, but I was under observation because I was expecting twins. I was hospitalized at 37 weeks to monitor the babies and I had lots of edema at the end of the pregnancy. I gave birth by C-section because the twins’ health condition was [...]

READ MORE

 Your gift improves
prevention for women at key moments in their lives