Heffernan - An Arrow Through the Heart: One Womans Story of Life, Love, and Surviving a Near-Fatal Heart Attack

PRAISE FOR AN ARROW THROUGH THE HEART

Designated a most outstanding consumer health title of 2002 by Library Journal

Reads like a gripping suspense novel A moving story in the face of sudden catastrophe; recommended for all health collections. Library Journal, starred review

An Arrow Through the Heart is an epiphany for women who mistakenly believe they are immune from the ravages of heart disease. Using her heart as a magnifying glass, Deborah Heffernan provides readers with a window into their souls. Mehmet Oz, M.D., television talk-show host, cardiac surgeon, and Vice-Chair and Professor of Surgery at Columbia University

For anyone who still lives with the illusion that heart disease belongs only to men, An Arrow Through the Heart is a shocking wake-up call. Heffernan takes you to the precipice and lets you stare over the edge of losing it all. From the mundane sweetness of ordinary days to the gut-wrenching emergencies, you go on the roller coaster with a woman who isnt supposed to be living this life. But she is and what you learn along the way will change you. Nancy L. Snyderman, M.D., chief medical editor, NBC News

A commanding chronicle Unmarred by self-pity, an arresting story that women and men suffering from heart disease will find, well, heartening. Kirkus Reviews

An Arrow Through the Heart is not only a book of hope and inspiration, it is also a journey of spiritual intrigue. The coincidences and synchronicities that the author shares within the pages of her life story hint in such a comforting way that heaven walks with us each step of the way in each moment of our lives. This book is magnificent. Caroline Myss, author of Sacred Contracts and Anatomy of the Spirit

Nail-biting, almost cinematic suspense This is an absorbing book. Well written and informative it has much to offer as a reminder of the value of preparedness and of appreciating each day. Booklist

When one human triumphs against great odds, we are all lifted up. So we are with Deborah Daw Heffernans encounter with heart disease. This is a heroines journeythe story of one who braved everything, acquired wisdom and meaning, and returned to share with the rest of us. Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Healing Beyond the Body and Reinventing Medicine

Insightful and openly emotional. Publishers Weekly

Reading about catastrophe is always a dilemma: how can you enjoy a book about someones physical suffering? But here you follow the example of Heffernan, who enjoys herself in odd, articulate, and hard-won ways. The Dalai Lama is rumored to giggle a lot, and you get the idea that this author wouldnt hold anyones guffaw against them. Sublime humor, that high defense, is on the list of treatments she has picked. Elissa Ely, M.D., lecturer on psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Bulletin

I couldnt put it down! The truth shown like a torch on every page. There is nothing false, exaggerated or preachy here [Deborah Daw Heffernan] does not make out her doctors to be Gods who treat her like a mere female child, but [as] experienced experts in a field she didnt know much about but wants to, who answered her constant questions without condescension and respected and trusted her knowledge of her body. She also describes her doctors as people with very human traits. I would recommend this book to anyonecolleague, friend, or patient. [An] essential book for women to think deeply about and to re-evaluate your own life for a long time. Dixie Mills, M.D., Association of Women Surgeons

[Arrow] is as cathartic to read as it must have been to write. Heffernan makes no bones about the fact that part of the reason she wrote the book was to bring awareness to women of the little-known statistic that women are more likely to die of heart failure than anything else. So the book is in part a plea to women to take care of their health, both of the mind and the body, and to understand the warning signs and symptoms of heart attack On the flip side the book is as personal a story of a year of someones life as you could possibly read. Here is a woman who, in a moment, left the world of airports, cell phones, and meetings for a world where it took all her focus and strength to brush her teeth on her own. She forsook the world before her heart attack for the peaceful, slow-pace life in western Maine she had truly wanted all along. Forced to become mindful of every breath (literally and figuratively), to become almost completely reliant on her husband, family and friends, and to appreciate each day as the day her life could end, Heffernan eloquently describes her transformation to a peaceful, spiritual, and thankful existence. Lucysbooks.com

An Arrow Through The Heart

One Womans Story of Life, Love, and Surviving a Near-Fatal Heart Attack

Deborah Daw Heffernan

CONTENTS

There is a weight on my chest. Right between my breasts, pressing on my breastboneas though the atmosphere ripped open a shaft from the heavens to me and the sky poured down onto this one spot. Observant, detached, slowing down, breathing carefully, I think with my body.

I am having a heart attack, I say to Zoe, my yoga teacher.

I am in Cambridge, Massachusetts, lying on my back on Zoes clean, polished floor looking at white walls and gleaming wooden window frames. The pressure on my chest has become very specific. It is bearing down now and revolving like a vise, cranking my chest tighter and tighter. I feel no pain, just curiosity. It is the alert, still curiosity of an animal at the sound of a footfall in the woods, of a child beckoned by a frightening stranger, of a bird that senses a change in the atmosphere before a storm hits. The pressure, the twisting continues. It is not going away. I am beginning to sweat.

Zoe is bending over me because shes been helping me improve a gentle yoga pose, Reclining Marcysana. The idea, she says, is that with the shoulders relaxed and arms outstretched receptively, the heart is released and can ascend to radiance. It is one of yogas warming poses.

But I am cold. I look at my hands. They are marble white. I sluggishly realize that Zoe has helped me sit up; I suddenly feel her small, strong hand supporting my back. Now I have the sensation of cold rivulets coursing down my arms, millions of discrete trickles running from my shoulders, over my elbows, to my wrists. Nausea rises.

I am having a heart attack, I say again, this time with the calm, clinical finality that comes from absolute knowledge deep within my body.

For only a moment, my mind protests. Give it a minute. It must be a muscle pull. But Zoe does not second-guess me. Instead, she trusts the voice of my body and asks me what I want her to do.

I want you to call 911. Tell them I need a cardiac team. Tell them to take me to Mount Auburn Hospital. My doctor is Barbara Spivak. I need a cardiologist waiting for me. Something is terribly wrong.

The icy rivers flow to my marble hands. Take charge, take charge, take charge.

The 911 guys lumber in with armfuls of equipmentthundering male steps echoing into a serene white room with three women in tights sprawled on a polished floor. Quickly assessing what is needed, they joke that when they got the call they thought yoga class was code for a cult. I laugh. Everything is fine if I can laugh. They would be stern if something were wrong. I am aware of how big they are, how slender my classmates. I am amused by the space men take up and reminded of my husband in the bathroom, obliviously standing in front of the mirror I was using while happily telling me a funny story about his trip to the dump. I like these guys.