Westchester County woman raising awareness about heart disease and stroke: "It can happen to anybody"
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- A Westchester woman is raising awareness about heart disease after facing an emergency condition that sent her to the emergency room, but until that day, the working mom, who lived a healthy lifestyle, never saw it coming.
Margarita Pineiro shared her story with CBS2's Jenna DeAngelis from her home in White Plains, hoping it helps others.
"I woke up. I left my bedroom. I just walked down the hallway," Pineiro said.
She walked DeAngelis through the morning of Sept. 24, 2021, which started as a typical day, heading to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for her family.
"Immediately, right when I got about to this point, I felt the wind knocked out of me," Pineiro said.
Along with exhaustion, she felt chest and arm pain.
"At what point did you realize something was very wrong?" DeAngelis asked.
"When my jaw went numb, I knew I couldn't justify anymore, excuse any of the previous symptoms with something I'd eaten or I slept the wrong way. I was like, something was wrong," Pineiro said.
Listening to her body, she went to the emergency room. There, she learned through testing it was a heart attack.
"At that moment, I felt everything just stop, and I was in complete shock," Pineiro said. "The thought of not being here to raise my kids is a mother's worst nightmare."
That weighed on her as she headed into a procedure where doctors inserted three stents in her heart and discovered she suffered a "spontaneous coronary artery dissection."
"A syndrome more common in women, particularly women in their 40s and 50s, and you may not have traditional risk factors leading up to that event," said Dr. Rachel-Maria Brown Talaska, director of inpatient cardiology at Lennox Hill Hospital.
That's why Brown Talaska says it's crucial to recognize heart attack symptoms. She says chest pain is most common for both genders, but women may have less obvious warning signs.
"That includes breaking out in cold sweats, feeling that heartburn-like symptom ... sudden dizziness or fainting, feeling suddenly fatigued," she said.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women, with women of color disproportionately affected.
"More than 50% of Black women are living with some form of heart disease. A third of non-white Hispanic women are living with some sort of heart disease," Brown Talaska said.
That's why raising awareness is so important, especially for Pineiro. She's among 12 women from across the country chosen as national ambassadors for the American Heart Association, raising awareness about heart disease and stroke.
"I feel like I was given a second chance for a reason," Pineiro said.
"What do you want people to take away from your story?" DeAngelis said.
"I want them to know that it can happen to anybody," Pineiro said. "Listen to your body, put yourself first, fill your own cup because to be everything you are to someone else, you have to be that for yourself first."
The American Heart Association says 80% of cardiac and stroke events may be prevented with education and action.
For more information about warning signs, click here and here.