Louise describes the impact of having no cardiologists where she lives.
Written testimony
I lived in a small Alberta city, and there wasn’t any cardiology or specialists there. After learning that I had a silent heart attack in 2011, my family doctor sent me to a local family doctor who had an interest in geriatrics. I was 57. The new doctor sent me for a stress test and then I never heard anything again. I continued with the same heart medications. Five years later when I was hospitalized for a different health issue, my heart meds were dropped from 4 to 1. I noted it, but trusted my doctor and continued on. Three months later, in Feb 2016, I had a STEMI heart attack. Also called a Widowmaker. There was no cardiac intervention available to save me. And so the ER used clot-busters and flew me to Calgary, which was 300 kilometres away. I was there for 12 days. Having no emergency heart help available within the ideal of 90 minutes did irreversible damage. But I was lucky and survived.
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