- My name is Rachel.
This is my husband, Josh, and my son, Eli.
I was 32 years old when I had a heart attack.
Josh and I got married in 2011.
Within a year after that,
we ended up having four miscarriages.
Through genetic testing, they ended up telling us
that one of us was a carrier of a trisomy 13 chromosome,
which is a non-survivable chromosome deficiency.
And so they said, basically any time that we get pregnant,
it's a flip of a coin.
It's either going to be a healthy baby
or another miscarriage.
We had just gotten done having Sunday dinner
with my parents, and we were on our way back home.
And I told Josh, I said, "It's kind of weird,
"but I feel like I have heartburn."
- She mentioned that her chest was bothering her
a little bit, so on the drive home she talked about it
a little bit more.
I thought, well, you know we'll go home, take a few Tums.
- Popped a couple Tums, and at that point in time,
I didn't really think anything of it.
- Through the whole week, she continued to say,
hey you know, my chest still bothers me.
I'm like, well, did you take some Tums?
Being the real supportive husband I am.
- It didn't ever go away.
So I kinda just chalked it up to being a pansy
and not being able to deal with heartburn.
- Finally, one night she woke up, and she woke me up.
It was probably two o'clock in the morning or so.
She's like, yeah, she's like my chest
is just really hurting.
- And there were times that if felt like I had an elephant
standing on my chest.
There was even a point in time when I felt like
there was a little bit of numbness
in the inside of my bicep.
It didn't hurt, but it was kinda like it was asleep.
I tried relaxing, taking a bath, tried eating, drinking,
more Tums, and it just was getting worse.
And so I woke him up.
She's like, do you think I should go to the ER?
And I'm like.
- We sat in bed trying to decide what to do.
We have high-deductible insurance,
so going to the emergency room is not a cheap trip,
even if it's just for heartburn.
- So we go there, and I'm like thinking the whole
ride there that I'm gonna go spend $75 for a tab of Tums.
(laughter)
And I'm like, this is going to be great.
- We go to St. Elizabeth's.
- The key word when you get to the ER
is just say, chest hurts or chest pains,
and you don't have to do anything else.
You just get to go right through the line,
skip everybody else.
- Scared me a little, because I wasn't quite sure
what to expect, but they ran a gamut of tests in the ER.
Couldn't really find anything other than
my heart enzymes were elevated
and my blood pressure was elevated.
- And finally, about eight o'clock in the morning,
a cardiologist comes in and he's like,
you know, we're gonna do a heart cath.
- We don't expect to find anything,
but just to rule it out.
My arteries were abnormally small for an adult.
- Basically, she has abnormally small arteries.
- Once they got in, they found two small blockages.
- Like a 50 percent blockage on a normal person
is about 100 percent blockage on her.
- They went ahead and they did an angioplasty.
- That was kinda eye-opening
and just something you never think about.
- When they first told me what had happened
and that I had had a heart attack,
I was in shock.
At 32 years old, that wasn't what I was expecting
to hear them say at all.
So after being told all this,
Dr. Bajwa said, "You're gonna have to
"do a lifestyle change,
"and that includes diet, exercise and meds."
And at one point in time I think Dr. Bajwa
even had suggested maybe Josh and I consider
becoming vegetarians.
- I'm just like, no that's not good.
We're steak and potato people,
so after he walked out, I looked at her and said,
"I think that's grounds for annulment."
- He considered annulment at that point in time.
(piano music)
- The four miscarriages were tough,
and then she has this heart attack.
Those miscarriages were kind of a blessing in disguise
because if you go into labor with what you had,
there's a good chance you don't come out.
And so, you go, wow.
- That really sunk home to me.
And it was one of those that it was like,
okay, God, I get it.
I understand, I get it.
(cheering)
Good job.
- [Josh] He was well worth the wait, you know.
And so the good news, the good news
coming out of the whole thing is,
after she went through that, you know,
we have Eli, we have a healthy baby.
- [Rachel] He was by far the biggest miracle
so far in Josh and I's life.
- Yeah, you just can't say enough great things about Eli
because he's just the funnest thing on the planet.
- Orneriness of his dad is who he takes after for sure
(laughter)
The one thing I do remember is the packet of materials
that I originally had been given at St. Elizabeth's.
I remember seeing the American Heart Association logo
on the back of every one.
- You just can't get the word out enough,
at least in my opinion.
Like I said, you would have never guessed a 32-year-old
woman that has been physically active her whole life
is gonna have this problem.
And so if that can happen to her,
it truly can happen to anybody.
It's one of those things where it kinda hit home.
And it's like, okay, maybe we do need to do more
to kinda get her story out, to get the word out.
- Having a heart attack was definitely not part of my plan.
But it's brought us closer together as a couple,
where it easily could have torn us apart.
So I'm thankful that we were able to share this together,
despite that it was definitely a hard time,
tough time to get through.
But we have a pretty awesome family now because of it.
(soft music)
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