Heart Disease: A Patient’s Perspective

THE FIRST twinge of chest pain struck Heather Bardeleben late one night as she pored over a spreadsheet at her suburban Chicago home. When her husband, Bill, suggested she lie down, she brushed him off. “I’ll be fine,” she insisted.

But the pain didn’t go away. Her arms grew heavy, dizziness crept in and her home pulse oximeter showed dropping oxygen levels. By morning, Heather instinctively knew it had to be her heart.

Heather saw her cardiologist who ran an EKG, but it came back normal. Anxiety or acid reflux, she was told. Her primary care physician echoed the same theory, though he ordered a cardiac MRI just in case. When she couldn’t get the MRI scheduled and her pain intensified, Heather went to the ER. Again, tests looked normal, but because of her continuing chest pain, Heather was admitted to the hospital. Nitroglycerine pills helped, but the pain did not go away. Even so, a hospital cardiologist told her to go home, again saying she merely had anxiety or reflux. “There’s nothing wrong with your heart,” he told her. “I don’t know why you’re here.”

At that point Heather asked for an angiogram; both of her parents had received stents after X-rays had revealed blockages in their arteries, so she understood her risk factors. Unfortunately, the hospital doctor disagreed and sent her home, saying her symptoms didn’t warrant one.

A week later, Heather bent to sit on the couch and felt a sharp snap in her chest — like a twig breaking. She immediately knew something was terribly wrong. A portable device she’d purchased to monitor her father after his bypass surgery showed atrial fibrillation. “I’m in trouble,” she thought, moments before collapsing.

Paramedics revived her after her heart stopped that day, and by the time she got to the hospital, an angiogram revealed what she had feared: Plaque had ruptured, causing a clot, a heart attack and cardiac arrest. A stent was placed in her right coronary artery, though a 70 percent blockage remained in her left anterior descending (LAD) artery. Within two weeks, she had chest pain again, but doctors reassured her it was just her body adjusting to the stent. Days later, she suffered another heart attack, this time caused by artery spasms.

In late 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Heather received a pacemaker and implantable defibrillator to regulate her heart rhythm. She was sent home the same day but soon returned to the hospital with severe chest pain and was admitted for observation. Heather’s heart stopped five times that night, and doctors attempted to save her by inserting a stent in her LAD. Unfortunately, due to the CPR and stent procedure, she went into critical takotsubo cardiomyopathy (temporary heart failure). Yet another procedure was performed to place an Impella heart pump to give her time to potentially recover. It saved her life.

Five years later, Heather is alive and thriving. She has lost 65 pounds, keeps tabs on her heart rate and ends her  workday around 5:30 p.m. to limit stress. She also urges friends and family members to advocate for themselves in medical situations — to seek additional testing or a second opinion when they don’t get answers. If they are refused a test, she advises them to ask that the denial be recorded in their chart. She’s learned, she says, that doctors can make mistakes.

“Not advocating strongly enough nearly cost me my life. In total, I suffered from two heart attacks, six cardiac arrests and critical takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Before each event, I sought medical help for symptoms that indicated a potential heart-related event. If I had received an angiogram when I first presented with symptoms, it is likely that the blockage would have been discovered and stented prior to rupture — potentially preventing the chain of events that nearly killed me.”

She also speaks candidly about what she sees as gender bias in cardiac care, noting that when her husband Bill later sought care for chest pain, he received an angiogram immediately, while Heather’s concerns were dismissed: “I was told repeatedly I had reflux or anxiety, that it was anything but my heart.”

Heather’s story is a reminder that symptoms don’t always fit neat textbook definitions and that patient voices matter. For Heather, survival has become more than a personal victory — it’s become a mission to help others recognize the importance of self-advocacy and to challenge assumptions that can cost lives.

With her miraculous story of perseverance and survival, Heather notes she gets a very different response today if she complains of any abnormal feelings in her chest: “Now they take me seriously.”