As the Kids Heart Challenge 2023 (formerly known as Jump Rope For Heart) starts hitting schools this spring, two teachers at Mount Vernon are sharing how heart incidents can happen to anyone.
Erin Wilkinson, a teacher at the high school, said her heart attack, a dissection, happened in April 2019.
“I was getting ready for work and wasn’t feeling well.” Wilkinson said. “When my husband asked me if I was okay, I said no, I wasn’t. I started sweating and felt a strange feeling in my neck, jaw and back.”
Her husband drove the two of them to Mercy in Cedar Rapids. Wilkinson said reacting quickly and getting on the road immediately to the hospital is what saved her life, as the dissection of her LAD had greatly reduced her heart’s ejection fraction. She was in the hospital for five days, two days in the ICU. Because of her heart’s low ejection fraction, she had to wear an external defibrillator for several weeks and complete cardiac rehabilitation.
“I wasn’t able to return to work, missing the last six weeks of the school year,” Wilkinson said. “I did come in to visit with some of my seniors in May to be able to help them close out their final year.”
She had two stents placed as part of the repair, and she has some damaged tissue to her heart to this day.
“I have to avoid getting overheated, as it’s harder now for my body to regulate temperature. I need to avoid being overstressed as this was partially to blame for my heart attack. I get tired much easier than before and I will be on medication for the rest of my life.” Wilkinson said.
Jean Wade, an elementary teacher at Washington Elementary, has had two major heart issues.
Her first heart attack in February 2017, she noted, felt like intermittent heartburn.
After several trips to the doctor and a few prescriptions later, she finally went to the ER in the middle of the night because the heartburn finally wouldn’t go away.
“When I went to check in, hospital staff took me back right away and did an EKG. They noted immediately that I was having a heart attack,” Wade said.
The first attack only impacted a small artery in the back of her heart, and Wade noted ironically she had just completed the process of getting life insurance several months earlier and all of her tests indicated she had an extremely low risk of suffering a heart attack. She feels that was probably why it was misdiagnosed several times.
She returned to school the following week which happened to be conference week. She had to take a few partial days off during that period.
Her second heart attack in December 2020 happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wade notes the stressful teaching during that period is what greatly contributed to her second heart attack. Utilizing technology in new ways, new/adjusted programs and an increase in daily demands created high levels of stress for her.
That heart attack was a dissection of her LAD. After a stressful event at school, she felt something was wrong but didn’t know if it was her heart since it felt different as compared to the February 2017 incident. She had taken nitroglycerin and then was driven to the hospital by a coworker. By the time she got to the hospital, the nitroglycerin had started working, but the dissection required a 4-day hospital stay.
Following that incident, she was out of teaching for the remainder of the school year for the stability of students and staff.
“Consistency is important for kids, especially in elementary school, and we were still dealing with a lot of stress due to COVID-19,” Wade said.
Both teachers have had long teaching careers at Mount Vernon Community Schools, with Wade marking 27 years in teaching with 23 being in first and second grade at Washington Elementary. She is now a Title I reading instructor and absolutely loves her job.
“Being part of a child’s reading adventure is an honor,” Wade said. “Small group reading instruction is the perfect fit for me since it limits daily stress levels. I enjoy coming to work every day.”
Wilkinson is in her 24th year of teaching at Mount Vernon.
Limiting the stress in your life is one of the most important factors that both Wilkinson and Wade agree on along with diet and exercise.
“Every job has stress, it’s just about minimizing the impact of stress on your body,” Wade said. Daily exercise, and stress management activities are important to follow through at any age.
Another important thing to note is knowing the symptoms of heart attacks, especially for women.
“Women’s symptoms for heart attacks don’t present the same as they do in men,” Wade said.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, major symptoms of a heart attack include:
• Chest pain or discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center or left side of the chest that lasts for more than a few minutes or that goes away and comes back. The discomfort can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain.
• Feeling weak, light-headed, or faint. You may also break out into a cold sweat.
• Pain or discomfort in the jaw, neck, or back.
• Pain or discomfort in one or both arms or shoulders.
• Shortness of breath. This often comes along with chest discomfort, but shortness of breath also can happen before chest discomfort.
According to the American Heart Association, women may encounter many of the above symptoms, but they may also experience symptoms that are less associated with heart attacks including shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting and back or jaw pain.
If there is anything that feels odd or off, Wade encourages people to trust their instinct.
Jean Wade said it’s important to connect learning events in school with real world experiences. especially for younger students.
“Their fundraising efforts support research money that helps the heart doctors help me,” Wade sad.
She hopes that it helps students learn about others in their lives who have had heart conditions and spur a deeper connection in their fundraising efforts.
Both teachers commended the support they had from the school district, including from fellow teachers and staff, as they dealt with big health impacts and changes.