Winning the Battle
Cardiac Care: It's a Whole New Game
With friends around her, Sally Overturf of Creve Coeur is all smiles outside of the Edward Jones Dome in downtown St. Louis.
Heart & Surgical Pavilion
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It’s a far cry from last year, when she left a Rams football game feeling out of breath. “I didn’t think much about it at first,” she says. “I thought I was just out of shape. I went out after the game was over but I felt nauseous and I fainted. I still went home instead of going to the hospital.” But a trip to St. Anthony’s emergency department followed in the early morning hours and Overturf, 47, was shocked to find she had suffered a heart attack.
“She had lost about half of her heart muscle function because of the delay in treatment,” says her cardiologist David Sewall, MD. “She was the classic case of a female without severe chest pain who had exhibited all of the atypical symptoms such as abdominal discomfort and fainting.” Overturf was treated with an aggressive combination of medications, coupled with cardiac rehabilitation three times a week for several months and frequent physician visits.
“Over three to four months, she had a complete recovery of her heart function,” says Dr. Sewall. “She didn’t need surgery, a stent or a defibrillator, which was remarkable because historically patients who have lost that much heart muscle function have a considerably worse prognosis.”
Overturf says she’s doing “absolutely fine” and still can’t believe her heart was so badly damaged. “I do almost everything now that I did before my heart attack,” she says. “But I’ve changed my diet and I definitely try to exercise more.”
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