The signs of a heart attack aren’t necessarily what you see in the movies – something Winnipegger Kim Clermont knows first-hand.
“There’s just information that people don’t know,” Clermont, who had quadruple bypass surgery at St. Boniface Hospital last year, told 680 CJOB.
“Everybody thinks it’s going to be that TV moment, and it’s not.”
Clermont said she had been experiencing chest pains for months beforehand, but passed them off as simply indigestion or heartburn – until her symptoms got too serious to ignore.
“I never thought it was anything else,” she said. “I didn’t share it with anyone. Not my family, not my doctor. I kept it inside.
“I was at work one day and it was really bad again. I was very nauseous. I thought, ‘there’s something else, because I’m not sick’. So I Googled the symptoms of a heart attack in a woman, and as soon as I saw the nausea, the chest pains, I knew.”
Clermont said she was terrified by the prospect of a quadruple bypass operation, but the positive experience at St. Boniface made the entire process easier on her and her family.
“Thanks to St. Boniface, I’m here and able to share my story,” she said.
“That day, they were so wonderful there. When I went into the operating room, I felt completely calm. I felt this sense of calm going in there that it was going to be OK.
“They help you physically, obviously, but they help you mentally as well.”
680 CJOB is broadcasting the 2018 St. Boniface Hospital Foundation Radiothon of Hope and Healing, Presented by the Vickar Automotive Group, Friday from 9 a.m.- 6 p.m.
The number to call to donate is 204-237-7647 or online at www.saintboniface.ca/foundation
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