Women don't hesitate to call 911 emergency help - for someone else. But when they're the ones having a heart attack, only about half will make the call that could save their own lives.
A major new public health campaign launching today aims to change that.
Make the Call, Don't Miss a Beat is "the first national campaign targeted to women to learn about the symptoms of heart attack, and to call 911," says campaign director Suzanne Haynes of the Office of Women's Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The campaign will spread the word about heart health through public service ads on TV, print, radio, billboards and public transit, and through speakers with WomenHeart, a national coalition of women with heart disease.
A decade-long effort to raise awareness of women's heart disease risks has been successful, Haynes says. But results of a survey by the American Heart Association last year caught health officials by surprise. It showed "a huge decline in the percentage of women who would call 911, down from 79% in 2006 to 50% in 2009," Haynes says. "This was very alarming and there was no explanation for it."
The survey showed "women don't know if they're having a heart attack," says Lori Mosca, director of Preventive Cardiology at New York Presbyterian Hospital and a member of the expert panel working with HHS to develop the new campaign. It also found 78% of women would call 911 to save someone else, but if they're the ones having symptoms, "less than half said they'd call 911." Instead, they'd take an aspirin, call the doctor or "wait it out," Mosca says.
Why? "They're waiting for it to go away," she says. "They're hoping they'll be wrong."
Often, women say they're afraid their symptoms will be dismissed, or they don't want to cause a fuss by calling an ambulance with its flashing lights. "We've gotten some really wild reasons - 'I don't want the EMTs (emergency medical technicians) to see my messy house,' or 'I want to put my makeup on,' " Mosca says.
Eileen Williams, 58, of Manassas, Va., was a paramedic herself when, at age 43, she had a heart attack. At the end of a 24-hour shift at a local firehouse, she "felt an explosion at the side of my neck" that became a persistent, dull pain, she says, yet she waited 12 hours before calling her own 911 team. "Everyone denies they're having a problem."
Now, she speaks to women's groups about knowing the symptoms of heart attack and dialing 911.
"Call us," she says. "You're not inconveniencing us. That's why we're here. We can save your life - if you call us soon enough."
By Anita Manning
source