{"id":5581,"date":"2017-05-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/herheart.org\/2017\/05\/19\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/"},"modified":"2017-05-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-18T14:00:00","slug":"survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Survivor of deadly heart disease SCAD leads nationwide support campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Pamela McKenzie | Credit: ABC News | Click to view video.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Gian <\/em>de Poloni<\/em><\/p>\n

Pamela McKenzie was in her early 40s and fit and healthy when she suffered a severe heart attack, leaving doctors puzzled.<\/p>\n

It turned out to be an extremely rare disease \u2014 Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) \u2014 which occurs when a blood vessel in the heart tears open.<\/p>\n

Now she’s leading a nationwide campaign to offer comfort and support to other survivors.<\/p>\n

Ms McKenzie said she had been told she was extremely lucky to survive and would never meet anyone else with SCAD.<\/p>\n

“You’re first told that there’s not much information out there, not many people know much about it. It’s very frightening, it’s very isolating,” she said.<\/p>\n

Undeterred,\u00a0she started a Facebook page to seek out other survivors\u00a0and was overwhelmed with the response.<\/p>\n

She’s since been in contact with nearly 150 other SCAD survivors from across Australia, and is looking to publish a book sharing the survival stories she had uncovered.<\/p>\n

“I want to reach as many new survivors as possible so that they know there is life after SCAD,” she said.<\/p>\n

“You can pick up, you can get on and you can keep moving \u2014 and here are some stories of people who have done exactly that with their lives.”<\/p>\n

Nurse finds support through Facebook<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"

Mandurah nurse Fiona Ashworth | Credit: ABC News<\/p><\/div>\n

Mandurah nurse Fiona Ashworth is one of the survivors who contacted Mrs McKenzie through Facebook, desperate for answers.<\/p>\n

She was diagnosed with SCAD after a heart attack at her home in June last year.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got no family history with heart problems, I’m quite careful about what I eat, I try and exercise,” she said.<\/p>\n

“In the 30 years that I’ve been nursing I’ve never come across it at all.”<\/p>\n

Ms Ashworth said she’s grateful for the Facebook page.<\/p>\n

“I’m glad that it’s there because you can always ask a question and there’s a lot of people that will help you or if you just need someone to talk to,” she said.<\/p>\n

Genetic link investigated<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The success of the Facebook page triggered a study into SCAD by the Sydney-based Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.<\/p>\n

Senior research scientist Dr Siiri Iismaa said very little was known about the disease and it was often undiagnosed.<\/p>\n

She said a lot more research is required to understand what causes the disease, which is much more prevalent in women than men.<\/p>\n

“The treatment is not very well established; we’re not sure if we’re treating the patients properly and also we don’t know if we can prevent the disease,” she said.<\/p>\n

Dr Iismaa said the institute had been granted approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee to conduct a new study looking at the genetic implications of SCAD.<\/p>\n

“We do believe that there is a genetic component because there seems to be some familial cases where mother-daughter or sister-sister has the disease,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We’re hoping to get as many SCAD patients as we can to donate samples so that we can get genomic DNA.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article was originally published in ABC News<\/a> on May 13, 2017.<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][vc_column_text]<< Back to Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD)<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gian de Poloni<\/p>\n

Pamela McKenzie was in her early 40s and fit and healthy when she suffered a severe heart attack, leaving doctors puzzled.<\/p>\n

It turned out to be an extremely rare disease \u2014 Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) \u2014 which occurs when a blood vessel in the heart tears open.<\/p>\n

Now she’s leading a nationwide campaign to offer comfort and support to other survivors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[145],"class_list":["post-5581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conditions","tag-scad","pmpro-has-access","grve-entry-item","grve-blog-item"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSurvivor of deadly heart disease SCAD leads nationwide support campaign | Her Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Survivor of deadly heart disease SCAD leads nationwide support campaign | Her Heart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Gian de Poloni Pamela McKenzie was in her early 40s and fit and healthy when she suffered a severe heart attack, leaving doctors puzzled. It turned out to be an extremely rare disease \u2014 Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) \u2014 which occurs when a blood vessel in the heart tears open. Now she's leading a nationwide campaign to offer comfort and support to other survivors.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Her Heart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-18T14:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/SCAD-ABC-video.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"956\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hhhero\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"hhhero\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/\",\"name\":\"Survivor of deadly heart disease SCAD leads nationwide support campaign | Her Heart\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/SCAD-ABC-video.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-18T14:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/#\/schema\/person\/e6eb00afb3dd078f0cc1df74ebcdd2ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/SCAD-ABC-video.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/SCAD-ABC-video.png\",\"width\":956,\"height\":536},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Survivor of deadly heart disease SCAD leads nationwide support campaign\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/\",\"name\":\"Her Heart Ltd\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/#\/schema\/person\/e6eb00afb3dd078f0cc1df74ebcdd2ee\",\"name\":\"hhhero\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/author\/hhhero\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Survivor of deadly heart disease SCAD leads nationwide support campaign | Her Heart","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Survivor of deadly heart disease SCAD leads nationwide support campaign | Her Heart","og_description":"By Gian de Poloni Pamela McKenzie was in her early 40s and fit and healthy when she suffered a severe heart attack, leaving doctors puzzled. It turned out to be an extremely rare disease \u2014 Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) \u2014 which occurs when a blood vessel in the heart tears open. Now she's leading a nationwide campaign to offer comfort and support to other survivors.","og_url":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/","og_site_name":"Her Heart","article_published_time":"2017-05-18T14:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":956,"height":536,"url":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/SCAD-ABC-video.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"hhhero","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"hhhero","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/","url":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/","name":"Survivor of deadly heart disease SCAD leads nationwide support campaign | Her Heart","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/SCAD-ABC-video.png","datePublished":"2017-05-18T14:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/#\/schema\/person\/e6eb00afb3dd078f0cc1df74ebcdd2ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/SCAD-ABC-video.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/SCAD-ABC-video.png","width":956,"height":536},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/survivor-deadly-heart-disease-scad-leads-nationwide-support-campaign\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Survivor of deadly heart disease SCAD leads nationwide support campaign"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/","name":"Her Heart Ltd","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/#\/schema\/person\/e6eb00afb3dd078f0cc1df74ebcdd2ee","name":"hhhero","sameAs":["https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart"],"url":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/author\/hhhero\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/area54.thedct.net\/herheart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}