Key points from today’s guests:

Kara Burns, N.P., nurse practitioner, The University of Kansas Health System; SCAD patient

• About 10 years ago at the age of 39, Kara was snuggling in bed with her 7-month-old son, when she felt a sharp pain in her back.
• Her husband called an ambulance and she was rushed to the hospital and it turns out she was having a heart attack.
• It was triggered by a condition called SCAD – Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection.
• With cardiac rehab and time and medicine, she credits the good medical team who helped her regain that trust in her body so she could get back to a normal life.
• She now works alongside the doctor who treated her, Dr. Paola Roldan.
• Kara encourages others to be advocates for their health and get help if something does not feel right.

Dr. Paola Roldan, heart failure and transplantation cardiologist, The University of Kansas Health System

• There are three main arteries that surround the heart and within those arteries, there are three layers. There can be a tear or bleeding within the layers which can cause the artery to occlude and cause a heart attack.
• General symptoms include chest pain, neck pain, back pain, clammy skin, and nausea.
• With heart attacks, time is of essence because we usually say, “time is tissue” so the longer you wait, the more myocardium damage there is.
• Within that early postpartum period, I do tell my patients as a cardio obstetric physician to please listen to your symptoms because that's also the time period that people are most prone for postpartum cardiomyopathy, which is heart failure in the postpartum period.
• There are typically no warning signs and Kara had no pre-existing conditions or family history.
• SCAD is not a common cause of heart attacks -- it accounts for about 1-2 percent of heart attacks.
• The cases involve women about 90 percent of the time.
• Triggers that can cause spontaneous coronary artery dissection include postpartum and post menopause with emotional stressful triggers or physiological stress.

Friday, April 19 at 8 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. Nursing assistant Adrienne Salazar knows what patients are feeling because he's been there. See how a stage 4 diagnosis derailed Adrian's college career, but offered a new chance to pay it forward.

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