It was a sea of red as more than a hundred individuals turn out in support of women’s heart health. Holly Geaman has more on the first “Lima Women Have Heart.”
“So, when you get signs we don’t know. I had knowledge that I knew it could have been a heart attack but I was distracted from the dental pain”.
Nell Lester thought she was suffering from a severe toothache but her dental issue led to her finding out she was having a heart attack.
Nell says when she woke up they said, “You had a heart attack and we fixed you. Your main artery was 99-percent blocked.”
Sharing her story and a panel discussion with health care professionals about signs of heart disease was the purpose of “Lima Women Have Heart”. According to the American Heart Association, the disease kills one woman approximately every 80 seconds. Heart disease is preventable and it’s important for women to take the signs seriously.
Lima Memorial Cardiology Nurse Practitioner Daniela Tangerman explains, “I think it’s important that females know their history. Both family history and personal history, that way they can advocate and have good preventative medicine.”
Those attending say they wanted to be there because heart disease has touched their lives and they wanted to support the awareness this event promoted.
Ethel Payne says, “I have relatives, my mother died from heart trouble. I have 2 older brothers and an older sister. I also just found out another older sister is suffering with heart trouble and my father. So, I thought it would be interesting for me to come and find out all that I can.”
Sara Newman adds, “I do know that women rarely even recognize that they even have heart issues and that our symptoms are different than a man’s. So, it’s kind of neat to be able to be here at the luncheon to just hear what to look for, what we can do about it. It’s just kind of exciting to see all these women in red to support the cause.”
“Lima Women Have Heart” was a joint effort of 6 sponsors who all agreed that the issue of heart disease and how it affects women differently was an important topic.
Lima Sharetta Smith adds, “One of the things that I love about this community is our ability to pull together and tackle issues. Today we have a full room of individuals who are here for support or encouragement. And also to get the necessary information that they can to go out and share with their friends and their families so that we can prevent heart disease in our community.”
