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Woman hopes heart attack teaches others

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By Kim Margolis, Staff Writer 5:02 PM Wednesday, February 17, 2010

CENTERVILLE — When Kim Ash finally believed she was having a heart attack, she rushed to the hospital.

But it took her a week of wondering before she addressed her ailment.

Ash, 49, of Centerville wants others to learn from her.

“It may not be a pain that brings you to your knees,” she said of the symptoms of a heart attack. “It might just be uncomfortable feelings.”

A week before her heart attack, she felt tired and just “not right” all week. On a Friday, she left work at The Media Group at Michael’s an hour early.

She went home and for 20 minutes fidgeted, unable to get comfortable.

Then there was the tightness in her chest, the dizziness, and most of all the nausea.

She went on the American Heart Association Web site, where she learned she had almost all the symptoms of a heart attack.

“At least my hands aren’t numb,” she remembered thinking. Not three minutes later, they were.

Her husband, Darrell, drove her to Miami Valley South. Eventually, an EKG and blood tests told her that shortly before she arrived she had a heart attack.

Because she headed quickly to the hospital she had little heart damage, but one of her main arteries was blocked 80 percent. A stent now keeps it open and delivers medication to keep it that way.

Ash had no family history of heart ailments, she was only 49, she ate fairly well and considered herself to have little stress. She did smoke as much as a pack per week.

She no longer smokes and does exercise on a treadmill and even with a hula hoop. She and her husband get up and move, whether it’s running in place or using hand weights, during television commercials.

Slowing herself down has been the most difficult lifestyle change.

“I was a person who felt like I had to do everything and I had to do it perfectly,” she said.

At Michael’s, she works with 80 women. Now she tells them to get cholesterol checked, but also to consider further testing of arteries to determine any blockages.

She does a lot of reading on heart health and shares that information with the women at work.

“In some weird way I feel like I’m helping somebody else,” she said. “And I don’t want this to happen to somebody else.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2216 or kmargolis@DaytonDaily News.com.

American Heart Month

In February, the American Heart Association works to educate people about heart disease.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.

In 2009, 785,000 Americans had a first heart attack and 470,000 had a recurrent heart attack.

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