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TEMOIGNAGES
Nurse (Issoire, France)

Emilie, 36 years old

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I lost my husband suddenly in July 2019. After he passed away, I had treatment with a psychiatrist. We had three young daughters and I had to keep fighting for them. I didn’t smoke, but was very stressed by all the things I had to take on by myself. In September 2019, about two months after my husband died, I was having a calm day at home with my girls. I had all the symptoms of a heart attack. I work in cardiology and I know these signs well. First, I had pain in my lower chest that felt like a stomachache. Then this morphed into pressure and tightness in my chest. After that, I felt pain and numbness in my left arm and pain in my jaw that finally radiated into my back. I called the EMS. My electrocardiogram readings had changed and my troponin levels had increased. I was admitted to intensive care immediately with a suspected heart attack. But the coronary angiography was negative. In reality, it was a stress—or takotsubo—cardiomyopathy. My heart had been broken by my husband’s death. Things like this don’t just happen to other people. I knew the symptoms since I’m a cardiology nurse. So I want my story to help other women listen to their bodies and get help when they feel unusual or persistent cardiac symptoms. Thank you to Women’s Cardiovascular Healthcare Foundation (Agir pour le Cœur des Femmes) for the work they’re doing.

 

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Annie, 64 years old

For several years, I’d been having heart rhythm problems lasting an hour at a time, three times per week. Then it increased to four days a week. It was an arrhythmia. Treatment wasn’t helpful. I had palpitations every day even if I wasn’t doing anything other than eating. It was an ordeal. I [...]

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Katia, 55 years old

Lille, France

September 2019: I left my home after domestic violence. I filed a complaint with police and started divorce proceedings. My first shock. March 2020: COVID-19 arrived and I was locked down alone in my apartment and new town, Le Havre. Being furloughed for three months threw me into a state of complete [...]

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Stéphanie, 55 years old

Secretary in Nancy, France

“A colleague verbally attacked me for an incident that seemed to me like it wasn’t a big deal. I felt a physical shock, but I didn’t pay any attention to it. I felt pain in my chest and my left arm for two or three days, but I wasn’t alarmed by it. Then, one night while I was reading, I [...]

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