When Donna K. Arnett, Ph.D., became the volunteer president of the American Heart Association in 2012, she was hailed as the first epidemiologist to serve in the role. What many people didn’t know is she is also the first stroke survivor to lead the organization in its nearly 90-year history.

Dr. Arnett, a noted researcher and chairperson of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, never hid the fact she had a stroke at age 27. She simply never made it an issue, either – a testament to the fact that stroke is largely treatable and beatable. She shares her story this May, American Stroke  Month.

Started off a normal day, then…

The day began like most others. I got out of bed at about 5:30 a.m. and went to let out my dog, Nikki. 

Walking toward the door, I felt really odd. I then made some coffee and went to call Nikki back in. But the words that came out weren’t what I was trying to say. “That was weird,” I thought. “Did I hear that right?”
 
Chalking it up to the early hour, I went on with my morning routine. Yet the odd feeling went on, as well. I can’t quite explain it. Things were just fuzzy.
 
I knew something was wrong medically. I even wondered, “Is this what a stroke feels like?” It’s a strange situation for a healthcare professional. You know the warning signs, you have seen evolving stroke symptoms in patients, but when it is you, there’s an eerie disbelief – especially considering my age and overall good health.
 
With all of those thoughts going through my head, I drove in to my office. I was a clinical nurse at the time, and as I started my day the fuzzy feeling continued. Eventually, I turned to my boss and said, “I think I am having a stroke.”
 
He thought I was kidding. As the morning went on, he realized I wasn’t.
 
My symptoms piled up: Drooling; weakness in my left arm, then in my left leg; finally, my speech slurred so much that you couldn’t understand anything I said. By the time I reached the emergency room, I could no longer speak.

I knew exactly, precisely, in great detail, everything that was going on around me. Everything I’d studied and heard from stroke patients was playing out.

I felt no pain – only anguish. I was painfully alert, trapped inside a body that would not work and could not communicate. I formed thoughts and sentences but could do nothing with them.
 
My mind raced. I wondered what my life would be like in this new, isolated state. How would I care for patients? Could I even do the work that brought me such joy?
 
It was intensely lonely. I felt like no one could understand what was happening to me, and that no one ever would be able to really understand me again. Three days before, I underwent a small, routine procedure. It went fine, but what I didn’t know was that I had a condition that left me prone to clotting after surgery.
 
Sure enough, clots had formed around the mitral valve in my heart. Over the course of my fateful morning, some of those clots broke off and traveled to the temporal lobe of my brain, creating many small lesions. I saw them on the MRI – white speckles that lit up my brain like brilliant stars lighting up the sky.

Getting treatment

I was fortunate in so many ways – especially considering much of our current scientific knowledge about stroke was not available back then.
 
For example, I was not treated with tPA, the breakthrough drug that can limit long-term damage from stroke, because it wasn’t on the market yet.
 
Also, people weren’t as aware of the importance of calling 9-1-1 right away if you see someone showing signs of a stroke. Now we know that it’s critical to act if you see someone you know – or even a stranger – showing signs of a stroke.
 
I found an expert who identified the cause for my clotting problem, and I have been safely taking the anti-clotting drug warfarin for more than 20 years.
 
I had no long-term paralysis. My speech returned. And, eventually, I relearned the things that were stored in the parts of my brain that were lost.

There is hope

Losing a part of your brain is not like losing your memory. You retain the knowledge that you know how to do simple tasks – such as read a calendar, walk on a treadmill or weigh a patient on a balance beam scale – but the processes for doing those things have been wiped clean from your brain.
 
It was startling to discover these black holes. Relearning these things took time, patience and the love and kindness of my family and patients.
 
The point is, I did. I relearned all the little things and continued with the big things I had planned, personally and professionally. And I’m here to tell everyone who is recovering from stroke or helping a loved one recover that there is hope.
 
You may be dealing with those same feelings of isolation, doubt and despair I was feeling. You may be fighting through the pain and fear of rehabilitation, or coming to grips with the understanding that some of your abilities may be different now.
 
But don’t give up. You can get your life back after stroke. Not only that, you can go on to accomplish a great deal.

The American Stroke Association has more information about stroke .

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“I really couldn’t believe this happened to me,” says survivor Amy Heinl. “I thought of myself as a healthy person, and was exercising when [my heart attack] happened.”

Whether it’s disbelief, lack of awareness or misdiagnosis, dismissing the symptoms of a heart attack can delay critical, life-saving actions. Being able to recognize the warning signs and act quickly, however, can save a life.

Causes of a heart attack in women

Heart attacks occur when the flow of blood to the heart is blocked by a buildup of plaque in coronary arteries. While the initial causation can often be pinned on the usual suspects – heavy smokers, people with high-stress lifestyles, or those who are excessively overweight – the not-so-usual suspects can also be at high risk for heart attack.

“I think we all get used to doing too much and learning to ignore minor ailments or fatigue because that is what women are programmed to do,” says survivor Rekisha Harris. But because heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, it is imperative that women learn the warning signs and symptoms, see a doctor regularly, and learn their family history.

Symptoms of a heart attack:

• Uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the center of your chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back.

• Pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.

• Shortness of breath, with or without chest discomfort.

• Other signs such as breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.

As with men, the most common heart attack symptom in women is chest pain or discomfort. But it’s important to note that women are more likely to experience the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting and back or jaw pain.

What to do during a heart attack

If you experience any of these signs or symptoms:

• Do not wait to call for help. Dial 9-1-1, make sure to follow the operator’s instructions and get to a hospital right away.
• Do not drive yourself or have someone drive you to the hospital unless you have no other choice.
• Try to stay as calm as possible and take deep, slow breaths while you wait for the emergency responders.

Why it’s important to know the symptoms of a heart attack

Women who consider themselves healthy often misdiagnose the symptoms of a heart attack because they don’t think it could happen to them. That is why it’s crucial to learn about heart disease and stroke, know your numbers, live a heart-healthy lifestyle and be aware of the risk factors of heart disease.

For more information about heart attacks in women, check out our article on Common Questions about Heart Attack Symptoms.

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Azsha Matthews, a recipient of the Go Red™ Multicultural Scholarship Fund, has witnessed the impact of healthcare disparities first hand. Her grandmother suffered a stroke after financial concerns forced her to stop taking her medication. Her brother is diabetic and frequently cannot afford insulin. A close family friend passed away because she was uninsured and did not seek medical care for chest pains.

“Many people think minorities are looking for handouts, but I have seen that pride actually keeps people from asking for the help they need,” she says. “I hope that by becoming a nurse I can become an advocate for these types of people.”

Being an advocate for others comes naturally for Matthews.  While attending Xavier University in New Orleans she cleaned up homes and churches following disastrous hurricanes, tutored children after school and volunteered in a local hospital. Now in graduate school at Columbia University, she helped with the Hurricane Sandy relief effort, educated people about the risks of high blood pressure at the “Harlem Health Revival,” and continues to log hours at the student-run clinic that provides free health care to uninsured members of the local Hispanic community.

She’s also working on a research study sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation aimed at increasing the amount of genetic material from minorities stored in biorepositories, which are essentially storage facilities for specimens that may lead to future medical breakthroughs.

This commitment to the underserved keeps Matthews motivated on her quest to become a Nurse Practitioner, with a focus on people who have limited access to healthcare. After working in the field for several years, she hopes to ultimately obtain a Ph.D. or DNP and teach the next generation of nurses about minority health.  The Go Red Multicultural Scholarship Fund, sponsored by Macy’s, will help defray some of the costs of  Matthews’ ambitious personal and educational journey.

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As a second generation Mexican-American pursuing a nursing degree, Kristine Gallardo, a recipient of the Go Red™ Multicultural Scholarship Fund, is in a unique position to give back to the community that raised her.

Gallardo grew up in a Spanish-speaking home before attending college. Now in graduate school at Azusa Pacific University, she considers herself “lucky” to have had so many opportunities, and gives back by volunteering at a medical clinic that serves primarily Hispanics. It is this volunteer work, and the experiences of family members, that have opened her eyes to the major disparities that exist in the healthcare system.

“Minority populations are stuck between the cultural barrier, the language barrier and the economic barrier,” she says. “I can relate to this population and help guide them with the knowledge I have gained through my formal training.”

Gallardo recognizes that access to care and affordability as issues that affect most Americans, and she believes cultural differences are an additional barrier for Hispanics.

“I have seen many situations where healthcare providers pass off a patient by labeling him or her ‘noncompliant’ or ‘uncooperative,’ she says. “Often the problem is not a patient who won’t follow through, but simply that the patient is lost due to misunderstanding and confusion.”

Alleviating this confusion and the disparity of care that results are Gallardo’s motivation as she works toward a master’s degree in nursing.  The Go Red Multicultural Scholarship Fund, generously supported by Macy’s, will help subsidize the education that is required for Kristine to provide culturally sensitive medical care to a community that has given her so much.

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When Myo-Sabai Aye — a recipient of the Go Red™ Multicultural Scholarship Fund – looks at her parents, it’s all the motivation she needs to continue pursuing her rigorous M.D./Master’s in Public Health degree at Eastern Virginia Medical School.

An immigrant from Burma, Myo-Sabai was sent to the U.S. by her parents to escape the political instability of that nation. She moved in with her aunt and attended high school in inner city Washington, D.C. Years later, her parents joined her and both worked double shifts to support Myo-Sabai and her sister.

Aye was able to overcome the language barrier and learn English by studying children’s books, then went on to graduate from the University of Virginia and work as a Burmese interpreter for the International Refugee Committee. Translating for refugees at physician appointments, combined with a few inspirational volunteer opportunities, have led Aye to seek a career in medicine.

“I worked with a child who’d had a traumatic brain injury and marveled at his miraculous recovery,” she says. “I could only imagine the joy I would get as a physician,” she says.

Despite the rigorous curriculum and some moments of doubt, Aye says working with patients at a free clinic helps reassure her that becoming a doctor is the right choice. She also hopes a career in medicine will allow her to take care of her parents, whose health is deteriorating.

“My parents have dedicated their lives to provide for my sister and I, regardless of any obstacles,” she says. “I would like to provide for them as much as I can while they are still with me.”

Now entering her third year of medical school, the rigors of the program will require Aye to cut back on her hours as a paid interpreter.  The Go Red Multicultural Scholarship Fund, sponsored by Macy’s, will help cover some of the costs of her education.

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“Lavi Pa’m Te Byen Rampli” is a creole saying that means “I have lived a full life.” For Nadia Elgoghail, a recipient of the Go Red™ Multicultural Scholarship Fund, these are the words that have inspired her to serve others throughout the world and pursue a career as a nurse practitioner.

Raised in an Egyptian-American family, Elgoghail grew up in Cairo, Egypt and Port Huron, MI. She credits her grandfather, a doctor and humanitarian, with instilling in her entire family a motivation to seek adventure and give back to others.

“I knew from an early age that I wanted to make a global impact,” Elgoghail says.

Her adventures have taken her to the University of Arizona and then abroad to Costa Rica and Ecuador. Her post-college work with the Peace Corps landed her in North Cameroon, Africa.  While she spent hours speaking to men and women about various health topics, she knew something was missing.

“I could talk to people about health and medicine, but I didn’t have the knowledge to insert an IV or administer medication,” she says. “I could teach HIV/AIDS awareness, but I couldn’t explain what HIV was doing to the body biochemically. This limited my ability to help those most in need.”

An influential colleague in Cameroon inspired Elgoghail to seek a career in medicine when she returned home. Now a student at Columbia University, she hopes to return to developing countries once she obtains her nursing degree. She dreams of working with Doctors without Borders and one day opening her own clinic abroad or at home. The Go Red Multicultural Scholarship Fund, sponsored by Macy’s, will help Elgoghail pay back student loans so she can focus on her goal to reach underserved populations.

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Sometimes it takes a major event to help one find a true sense of purpose. For Mary Witherspoon, a recipient of the Go Red™ Multicultural Scholarship Fund, this event was the tragic death of her son 12 years ago. Feeling lost and looking for direction after his passing, she decided to enroll in a nursing program at Chicago State University.

A strong student academically, Witherspoon struggled with the clinical portion of the program because it served as a reminder of her own son’s health struggles and what she had lost. Feeling grateful as she recalled the wonderful care her son and entire family had received before his death, she found the strength to continue pursuing her goal.

“I was able to see my patients as people who really needed help during a difficult time…people who were not only sick in their bodies but had other difficulties as well,” she says.

Financial problems, family issues, loneliness and general lack of information about following a healthy lifestyle were the many struggles Witherspoon witnessed in her nursing work.

“I sometimes found it hard to believe the lack of knowledge about heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses that these patients were dealing with,” Witherspoon says.

To help combat this lack of knowledge, Witherspoon has focused her career on health education and prevention and aims to improve access to care for people in underserved communities. She frequently turns to the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association and other nonprofits for materials and information to help educate people about their specific health risks. After several years of work in the field, Witherspoon has returned to Chicago State to pursue a Master’s of Science in Nursing, with an emphasis on community health. With a daughter in college and the costs of her own education mounting, the Go Red Multicultural Scholarship Fund, sponsored by Macy’s, will help Witherspoon continue to reach this important group with lifesaving information and care.

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While finishing her undergraduate degree at San Jose State University, Raisa Garcia, a recipient of the Go Red™ Multicultural Scholarship Fund, wanted to understand the prevalence of loneliness among the Asian American student population.

She uncovered children struggling with identity issues about being both Asian and American. She also revealed a population of parents dealing with the trauma of leaving their home country, working low-wage jobs and having a language barrier. The chain reaction of sharing her research findings and piloting a program to help these families led her to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Alliant International University.

Her focus is multicultural issues that affect Asian Americans but her research and volunteer work have taken her into a variety of disciplines. She has studied topics as diverse as bullying, physical and sexual abuse and body image issues among women. She has also done work in the public health sector­–writing policy briefs on tobacco cessation, diabetes and the Affordable Care Act.

While most classmates in her graduate school program are more specific with their studies, Garcia prefers being a generalist and believes that merging psychology with other health disciplines can help us navigate complex problems.

“My approach can sometimes be frustrating because there’s no set career path,” Garcia says, “But I believe the field can use people willing to be open to a lot of experiences.”

There is no doubt that Garcia will continue researching many different issues in an effort to help other people, and the Go Red™ Multicultural Scholarship Fund, sponsored by Macy’s, will assist her on this journey.

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Mariana Lucena, recipient of the Go Red™ Multicultural Scholarship Fund,  strives to improve the health and spirit of those she meets, one person at a time.

“Small or big, we all have a role to play,” she says. “My approach is targeting not the group, but the individual, the single one carrying an unbearable load.”

Lucena herself has overcome several “loads”, as she calls them. These include moving to the United States from Colombia at age nine and knowing very little English and fighting personal health issues as she grew up. She is now thriving as a pharmacy student at the University of North Carolina.

An active student pharmacist, Lucena has promoted influenza clinics and blood glucose clinics to educate people about the importance of getting scheduled vaccinations and maintaining healthy blood sugar. She considers her role as an educator in the Spanish-speaking population especially important, and reserves time to volunteer among elderly populations. She credits her years of experience visiting her grandmother in an assisted living facility with her focus on older populations today.

“The need to belong, to feel appreciated and valued is inherent to human beings,” she says. “The elderly are a vulnerable and usually forgotten component of our society.”

Among the people she serves, Lucena will certainly not be forgotten any time soon. The Go Red Multicultural Scholarship Fund, generously supported by Macy’s, will support her goal to improve people’s health, one person at a time.

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The Go Red™ Multicultural Scholarships are part of Macy’s Multicultural Fund.  Macy’s is a founding national sponsor of the association’s Go Red For Women® and Go Red Por Tu Corazón awareness campaigns.

The scholarship program, which is in its second year, champions greater inclusion of multicultural women in medical, nursing and allied health studies to meet the need that racial minorities have of healthcare providers who understand important aspects of various cultures.

The demand on healthcare continues to increase, but the number of qualified racial and ethnic nurses and physicians lags:

• Only 5.4 percent of African-Americans and 3.6 percent of Hispanics in the United States are registered nurses, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• In 2010, African-Americans made up only 6.7 percent of medical school graduates and Hispanics 7.5 percent, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

“It is extremely important to increase the availability of multicultural scholarships for minorities interested in health professions,” says Celia Trigo Besore, executive director and CEO of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses. “There are fewer sources of funding, high poverty rates among minority populations and an escalating cost of education toward a career in health fields. All these conditions increase the barriers for interested minorities to study a health career at a time when there is a growing need for additional qualified health professionals of any ethnic background.” 

Numerous ethnic groups — including African-Americans and Hispanics — are at higher risk for heart disease.  The Go Red Multicultural Scholarship aims to ensure women have access to healthcare providers who understand their culture and help make the best choices that lead to good health and strives to increase diversity in the healthcare industry for the future health of all women.

“Ethnically and racially diverse women are needed,” adds Eva Gomez, MSN, RN, heart disease survivor and Go Red spokesperson, “because they have a deep understanding of the needs of their communities and can make a unique connection with the persons they care for.”

The Go Red Multicultural Scholarship Fund aims to help close the gaps in both treatment and access to a more affordable education for women of diverse backgrounds

The 2013 scholarship recipients are:

• Mary Witherspoon: post-graduate nursing student, Chicago State University
• Azsha Matthews: undergraduate senior nursing student, Columbia University
• Nicole Sample: second-year student, NYU School of Medicine
• Whittney Work: undergraduate sophomore nursing student, Winston Salem State University
• Chiamaka Ike: senior pharmacy student, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, School of Pharmacy
• Nefertiti Clavon: undergraduate junior in health promotions, University of Houston
• Raisa Garcia: post-graduate student in clinical psychology, Alliant International University
• Myo-Sabai Aye: seeking a dual M.D./M.P.H., Eastern Virginia Medical School
• Jainty John: undergraduate senior studying to be a physician’s assistant, Le Moyne College
• Jee Hae Jones: senior nursing student, Hawaii Pacific University
• Danielle Cipres: first-year student, University of California-San Francisco’s School of Medicine
• Kristine Gallardo: post-graduate student, nursing program, Azusa Pacific University
• Sylvia Estrada: post-graduate student, nursing program, Western University of Health Sciences
• Yuliana De los Santos: post-graduate, studying osteopathic medicine, New York College of Osteopathic Medicine
• Mariana Lucena: post-graduate student, pharmacy program, University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy
• Nadia Elgoghail: senior studying to be a family nurse practitioner, Columbia University

Visit the Go Red Multicultural Scholarship page for more information and to apply for the 2014 scholarships.

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