Coronary heart disease (CHD) kills more than twice as many women as breast cancer in the UK every year. In the UK, 830,000 women are currently living with CHD and 32,000 women are admitted to hospital following a heart attack each year – an average of 88 women per day, or four per hour.
“I was one of the women
Heart Research UK are trying to educate”
In 2017, Vikie Shanks was leaving the hustle of Covent Garden tube station with her daughter. Suddenly, the 59-year-old was overwhelmed as an intense pain took over her body.
Vikie had suffered from what she believed was indigestion every day for three weeks. However, this episode was the worst she had experienced as she was unable to move, having to sit on the floor and lean against a wall near the entrance to the station.
“I kept putting it off thinking it was nothing serious, I had been getting extreme tiredness and fatigue for a couple of weeks. I remember watching all the taxis go past and thinking, I wonder if I should get in one of them and go to the hospital? But I thought going to the hospital for indigestion was too extreme.”
After the severe episode, she visited a nearby chemist for indigestion tablets and carried on with her day as normal. But her daughter insisted she see her GP.
“The next thing I knew
an ambulance arrived, and I was still saying to
them stop making a fuss.”
Although she believed there was nothing wrong with her heart, her GP was adamant that she should have an ECG. Despite Vikie believing she was fine; she took her doctor’s advice and went to A&E.
After having another ECG, Vikie spent hours in a ward where doctors were unable to determine what the problem was. It wasn’t until her friends visited her that the severe pains returned and she was kept overnight on the heart ward.
The following morning the intense pain returned. Vikie tried to rub her chest to ease her discomfort, but another patient noticed her struggling and rang a bell for help. The next moments were a whirlwind, as Vikie was surrounded by doctors and nurses who rushed her out of the door to critical care for emergency surgery.
“I was laughing and joking with the paramedics, as I was being blue lighted to the cardiac unit. When I arrived and even as I was being wheeled into the operating theatre, I was still saying to the nurse it was only indigestion.”
“I’ve never been the same again since I had the heart attack”
However, Vikie was in fact having a heart attack. Later, surgeons discovered it was a blockage of one of her main coronary arteries supplying blood to her heart. She was fitted with two stents, small mesh tubes, to keep the blocked artery open. A few weeks after the heart attack, Vikie experienced a huge ectopic load and in 2019, had an ablation on her heart to kill the extra heartbeats to correct them.
“I’ve never got back to being the person I was before, and my energy levels are lower. It’s not as simple as just having a heart attack and having a stent fitted, it’s something that must be taken very seriously.”
“I know a lot of women who don’t take it seriously and ignore it. It was lucky I was in hospital when I had the heart attack because I definitely would’ve died if I wasn’t there.
I was one of the women Heart Research UK are trying to educate, I put the pains in my chest down to indigestion thinking it had nothing to do with my heart. It’s absolutely imperative that women know not to ignore chest pain and to understand that it’s not just men that suffer from heart disease.”
Today, Vikie is leading a healthy lifestyle by prioritising self-care, exercise, and healthy eating.
She is also continuing her work as a public speaker, author and campaigner featured in the Netflix documentary ‘Kingdom of Us’, which focuses on mental health and disability as six of her kids are autistic.
She urges there needs to be more awareness for women to recognise the symptoms of a heart attack.
Find out more about the campaign using the links below.
