Adventist Health Bakersfield | You + Us | Spring 2019

Inspiring Health YOU + US : Together i nsp i red ™ YOU + US is printed quarterly (issue 1 of 4) by Adventist Health Bakersfield, 2615 Chester Ave., Bakersfield, CA 93301-2014. Information in YOU + US comes from a wide range of medical experts. If you have any concerns or questions about specific content that may affect your health, please contact your health care provider. Models may be used in photos and illustrations. Questions or comments? Email sjchmarketing@ah.org. 2019 © Coffey Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Sharlet Briggs President | Megan Simpson Executive Editor and Writer | Harold Pierce Editor and Writer | Felix Adamo Photographer | Willis Williams Design Studio Photographer The pain wore on slowly. There was no shortness of breath. No shooting pain in the arm. Learning a heart truth A heart attack ‘never entered my mind’ Moving forward. Linda Bosworth is on the path to recovery—with many plans for her healthier heart and future. Thanks to our cardiac rehab program! It didn’t come on like in the movies—unexpectedly, with two arms clutching the chest before collapsing to the ground. Instead, the symptoms of 76-year-old Linda Bosworth’s heart attack in September 2018 lingered for two days. It felt like “a little heartburn,” she says. She figured it was from the chili she had a couple of nights before. A slow burn turns scary Even though she has a family history of heart disease, Linda, a retired mortician, never imagined she would have a heart attack. It was men who had heart attacks, not women, she thought. But after a couple of days of discomfort, she woke up during the night to go to the bathroom—and collapsed to her knees. An ambulance arrived quickly—and Linda was rushed to Adventist Health Bakersfield, where a team of caretakers waited to take her into surgery. Later, Linda was told that if it had been another 15 minutes, she likely wouldn’t have survived. “It never entered my mind that it could have been a heart attack. I was so shocked, and so was everyone else in my family,” Linda says. “Women don’t realize it. I didn’t have the pain in the arm…or the other signs that give you an idea of what’s going on.” Raising awareness to save lives Linda isn’t alone in underestimating the risk for women. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, yet just 54 percent of women recognize it as the No. 1 killer. In Linda’s case, she had two of the most common risk factors: high blood pressure and high cholesterol. “I’ve had high blood pressure for a long time, and I knew my cholesterol wasn’t the greatest, but I’ve still not ever felt like I had any problems,” Linda says.