CityView Magazine

34 July 2023 Listen to your heart At the first signs of trouble, quick action can save a life. Sommer Royal-Smith is a living testament. BY JAMI MCL AUGHLIN HEALTH W hen women have heart attacks, it is not always like in the movies when men grab their arms and fall to the ground. Women are subtler. A heart attack can be masked as being tired, as the flu or even a panic attack. It can oen be overlooked. As the comprehensive cardiovascular coordinator at Cape Fear Valley Health, Sommer Royal-Smith thought she knew it all when it comes to heart attacks and risk factors. She was not overweight, she was young and she did not smoke. "I don't have a family history of coronary artery disease. I didn't have any of those textbook things you would be able to pick out. ey just didn't apply to me," says Royal-Smith. Despite it all, she was 41 when she had her first heart attack. It was recognizing the signs and getting help that saved her life. "I didn't have a blockage, but I had a spontaneous coronary artery dissection, an emergency condition that happens when a tear forms in a blood vessel in the heart and two heart attacks in less than five years. My first heart attack was in 2019 at age 41, and my second was at 45. at one was a widow- maker and caused me to go into cardiac arrest," says Royal-Smith. Royal-Smith says there were no warning signs for her first heart attack. "I never had chest pain, but I had just enough knowledge about the situation going on that I went over to the emergency department," says Royal-Smith. She says an EKG showed normal heart function but her symptoms worsened. "As the day went on, I got more and more fatigued, which was another indicator. It's one of the most common symptoms in females. It's also one that we overlook. We are busy, we're moms, we're wives, we work. I mean, there's so much going on that we just chalk it up to being tired," says Royal-Smith. When her husband, Bobby, came home from work, he found his wife of over 20 years on the floor. "I felt like I needed to stretch, which I know doesn't make any sense, but that's how I felt," says Royal-Smith. Royal-Smith says she didn't want to bother emergency responders despite urging from her friend and hospital paramedic Leslie Campbell, whom her husband had Sommer Royal-Smith is the comprehensive cardiovascular coordinator at Cape Fear Valley Health. Contributed photo

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