ATLANTA — Heart failure, according to the American Heart Association, affects 5.7 million Americans and causes more than 55,000 deaths in the United States each year.
Not only was Karen Wright privy to those numbers, she could very easily put a face on a great many of them.
For at least half of her life, Wright had helped care for both men and women suffering from some form of heart disease. She could list the symptoms as quickly as she could name her daughters’ favorite foods.
And yet for years, when it came to her own health, the Fairburn, Ga., single mom and nurse practitioner ignored her doctors and the warning signs: shortness of breath and fatigue.
Now she is on the waiting list for a heart transplant and adding her voice to the chorus of women who’ve found themselves in this awful place, hoping their story will not only help raise awareness of heart disease, but serve as a warning to other women to pay attention to their bodies and respond appropriately.
Last year, Wright said, she could no longer ignore the signs she had turned a blind eye to for 10 years.
“I told my doctor, ‘Whatever you have to do, do it,” Wright said.
So in March, Wright finally consented to having a heart pump, or left ventricular assist device, implanted to help her heart beat more efficiently.
“It’s not a permanent solution, but I feel so much better,” she said.
“There were times when I tried to tell myself it wasn’t what it was, but I knew my fatigue had nothing to do with lack of sleep,” Wright said. “Still, for some reason, I really was very resistant to getting the LVAD. Looking back, I’m glad the decision was made for me.” For most of her life, Wright worked in a busy clinic and was active in her daughters’ lives. She could run up a flight of stairs without blinking.
Then without warning, she found herself slowing down, struggling even to breathe and feeling tired all the time, classic symptoms of a sick heart.
When she finally went to a doctor, Wright said, she was suffering from congestive heart failure. It was November 2003. She was 42 years old.
Tests showed Wright’s heart was functioning at about 15 percent of its capacity. Doctors suggested she get the LVAD, but Wright refused. She hoped medicine and a pacemaker would be enough.
“I still got tired a lot,” she said. “I had to pace myself.”
In March, doctors implanted the LVAD.
According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, African-Americans are disproportionately affected by heart failure. There are 817 African-Americans awaiting heart transplants nationwide. Wright, who is Jamaican, is one of them.
Why? “Part of it has to do with the prevalence of hypertension in the African-American population,” said Dr. David Dean, heart surgeon and director of Piedmont Atlanta Hospital’s heart transplant and LVAD program.
Hypertension is so dangerous because it also leads to more diastolic heart failure, which occurs when the heart can’t squeeze enough blood out to meet the demand of the body.
