Evelyn E. shares her story:

After Christmas, 2000, my husband and I were driving home from Dallas to Columbia. We stopped in Birmingham to have dinner and walk around, and I noticed my back muscles seemed tight.

That night I was awakened by a needle-like feeling in my back, which came and went over the next two days; I labeled it "inflammation.” The third day it seemed to be worse, and after dinner I became nauseated and broke out in a cold sweat. I went to my bedroom, put on my pajamas and still felt bad, so I decided to call my good friend from church, Linda, a nurse practitioner, who offered to come over. When my husband checked on me, my breathing seemed to be shallow and I made the comment that maybe I was having a heart attack. He said that I didn't have any of the symptoms since I had no chest pain.

Linda arrived and asked a few questions, and asked if I had any aspirin, but I didn’t. She called my family doctor and told the office that I was on my way to the hospital. By the time I got there, I was feeling much worse.

Standing at the admitting window, I felt faint. They took me right back to the examining room, gave me an EKG and administered nitroglycerin. By the time Dr. Schwarz arrived, it was clear I was in the middle of a heart attack. They took me to the catheterization lab, did the angioplasty and inserted a stent, which stopped my heart attack. Luckily, I had minimal damage.

I feel so fortunate to have come through this experience as I have. I really consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about heart disease as my mother died at the age of 61 from it. But I did not recognize the symptoms and I would stress to any woman that if they feel symptoms of any kind, have it checked out. Insist that heart testing be done. I owe so much to my friend Linda. I feel like God was walking with me all the way.