My SCAD case

I was sitting at my dining table and chatting enthusiastically with my Godmother who had come to visit from Norway. My husband and I had just celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary and I was showing off some beautiful maps we had received as a gift. We had moved to Germany for a while, and it had been a year since I had been able to sit like this with one of the people I love the most. It was June, and summer had hit Germany. This meant an influx of happy northerners who wanted to come down to our place to get an early start to the good summer. There was also the European Football Championship in Germany right next to where we live. So a busy period. But also so nice!

I was sitting by the table, listening to something my Godmother was telling me when I felt a strange feeling in my entire upper body. My chest tightened and both arms felt completely strange. As if they were asleep. And then the strange feeling that both palms were going into extreme spasms.

At first it wasn't terribly bad, but bad enough that I was very stressed. Not because I was wondering what it was, but because I wasn't feeling well and had a house full of visitors. I couldn't afford to feel sick now. So I jumped up of my chair and walked resolutely to my husband who was sitting on the couch with his brother. It was the European Championship and they were both engrossed in it. I quickly said that I really don't feel well now. I think there's something wrong with me.

My husband studied me. Asked what it was. But I couldn't explain what was really happening and really just wanted to retreat. I excused myself to Godmother and said I had to go upstairs. Went into the bathroom and then it really started to press on my chest. It didn't feel like I wasn't going to be able to breathe, but it definitely felt like it was taking a lot of energy to do so. Sweat was dripping off me in a way I've never experienced before. In a very short time, every hair on my head was soaking wet. I had to lie down, but struggled to find a position that made it easier to breathe. My Godmother came after me and found me like that on the floor. She is a retired nurse and immediately told my husband that this is a hospital situation. I thought I had a panic attack or something. I had heard so much about it, but never experienced it myself. And since this came so suddenly, I thought that I really just want to be left alone and go to bed. It doesn't help me with so much fuss.

My husband tried to call the German emergency room where we live. He explained in English about chest pain, arm pain and breathing problems. Unfortunately, the lady who answered the phone did not speak English and chose to just hang up. He also tried to call 112, which is the German emergency number, to get an ambulance. It rang a few times – and then he was cut off. This happened eight times before he finally gave up. It turned out in retrospect to be a mistake where foreign calls did not get through on the emergency number (!). In desperation, he called the nearest hospital where we live. The University Hospital. There, he luckily met someone who spoke English at the reception and was told to come down with me right away. It would turn out to be a strange coincidence that this was exactly where I would end up.

I piled into the car. In my pajamas and bare feet. Threw myself into the back seat and my husband and Godmother were able to drive me down to the hospital. I was allowed into the emergency room and was met by some very efficient young doctors who quickly identified that I was having an ongoing heart attack – but impressively also knew SCAD well and that this was most likely something like that. That way the right cardiologist was called and the right procedure was performed. And I was stable and in intensive care within about 45 minutes.

The reason this is special is that SCAD is not a well-known condition. Many people are not diagnosed until later, and the hidden numbers are also believed to be large. Since the blockage can repair itself, and you will immediately feel significantly better, many people probably do not even know that they have had a heart attack if it is not that big.

This also means that if I had ended up in the emergency room, the probability is that they would have spent significantly longer time to identify the problem. Also the ambulance proboably would have taken me to the emergency room first if it had arrived, not to this hospital. Which again means a lot more time spent on identifying the problem.

But this particular University Hospital where my husband ended up taking me in despair, turns out has the cardiologists who are most experienced in SCAD in Germany. People are sent to this hospital from all over Germany because of this expertise. And it is located 6 minutes from where we live. It gives me a very strange feeling to think about these coincidences. It absolutely makes me feel a lot of gratitude!

I stayed in the hospital for a week before I was finally allowed to go home. I had some damage to my heart as it was a pretty severe case, and they wanted to keep an eye on it for a while. But I felt physically in great shape!

There were just so many questions. So many things I didn't understand. And no matter what I did and who I asked, I didn't get any answers.

Why did this happen and will it happen again???