Lady in Red
Heart attack survivor Star Colwell shares her
life-saving message in style
Star Colwell is proof that heart trouble can strike at any age. At age 45, she was blindsided by a heart attack—the last thing she thought she’d experience in her mid-forties.
Since, however, Star has taught herself to cope with the realities of heart disease. And in turn, she has boldly and selflessly stepped forth to educate others about women's heart health. She now sets a stylish example for others by involving herself with two public awareness programs—WomenHeart’s “white shirt” campaign and National Wear Red Day (February 3).
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| Since having a heart attack at 45, Star Colwell has worked hard to grow awareness of women's heart health issues. Here, she's wearing red in honor of National Red Dress Day (February 3), a women's heart health campaign. |
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Prior to her heart attack, Star was athletic and health conscious. She was recently married and loved to travel the world with her husband Bill. She entertained friends with gourmet meals at her beautiful North Phoenix home. And although she had high blood pressure and rheumatoid arthritis, Star stayed active by taking hour-long hikes early each morning with Bill and their dog, Ebony.
Everything changed for Star on a warm Sunday morning in June 2002. At the breakfast table, a severe chest pain gripped her. Seeing the look on her face, Bill immediately asked if she wanted to go to the emergency room.
"Yes, I do," Star replied, and quickly went to the bedroom to get dressed.
But just as she had finished dressing, she doubled over from another crushing chest pain, broke into a cold sweat and fell onto her bed. Hearing her moans, Bill rushed in to find her collapsed. He instinctively dialed 911.
The Golden Hour
Within minutes, an ambulance rushed her to John C. Lincoln North Mountain Hospital. At first, Star was admitted into a regular Emergency Department bed. Yet, suddenly, she went into Code Arrest; her heart stopped beating. Emergency staff jolted her back to life with a defibrillator. But her road to recovery was bumpy. EKG monitors showed inexplicable irregularities, and she was moved into a trauma room for closer monitoring.
Once stabilized, Star was taken to the hospital's Cardiac Cath Lab, where an angiogram showed extensive blockages in her arteries. A cardiologist opened one of her arteries with a stent, to reduce the immediate risk of another heart attack. Star was then transported to the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU), where her youth and spirit began working in her favor. Just as quickly as she had crashed, she began to improve steadily. According to her nurses, she was sitting up in bed, enjoying soup and a popsicle at lunch by 1 p.m.
As Star’s condition progressed, she was moved to the Progressive Cardiac Care Unit (PCCU).
Star was very impressed with the care she received at John C. Lincoln. "The nurses were wonderful," she recalls. "They took such good care of me. The PCCU nurses really spent a lot of time explaining what to expect and how I should care for myself once I went home."
The experience filled Bill with gratitude and wonder. "To think of all of the traveling we’ve done all over the world," he says, "that this happened so close to such excellent emergency and medical care, we're just so fortunate."
Spreading the Message
In the aftermath of her heart attack, Star felt like a "freak of nature," as she puts it. After all, she wondered, who has a heart attack at age 45?
An online community focused on women's heart health gave her comfort, however. Star found solace in the website of Women Heart (www.womenheart.org), a not-for-profit organization that advocates early detection, accurate diagnosis and proper treatment of heart illness for women. Through the stories of others, Star realized that she wasn't alone. In time, her self-confidence returned and she felt emboldened to educate other women about the risks of heart disease.
Today, Star serves as a spokesperson for Women Heart. In 2005, she was one of four women to be featured on a series of public service announcement posters called the White Shirt campaign. The posters depict women in white dress shirts, which are left tastefully unbuttoned to reveal the scar left behind by heart surgery. Star's message: "If heart disease is a man's problem, why do more women die from it?"
Indeed, heart disease is not just a man’s disease. Since 1982, more women have died from heart disease than men.
"Women need to start having heart check-ups earlier in life," Star says. "And women really should know their family health histories."
Within her own family, Star's experience encouraged her younger brother and sister to have preventive heart checkups. Although they were on the cusp of their forties, Star's siblings required heart stents. As a result, they've avoided heart attacks of their own.
Whatever she’s doing, Star lives with a gratitude for life. “I appreciate every day,” she explains. “I appreciate my friends a lot, too. I stop to smell the roses and enjoy life a little more.”