The first timeSusan Luccifelt a tightness in her chest last fall, she thought maybe she was just tired. “I told myself, it’s nothing, it will go away,” says the 72-year-old soap opera legend. “And it did.”
About 10 days later, she felt it again, “radiating around my rib cage,” she says. “I thought maybe I had fastened my bra too tightly.”
The third time was Oct. 23 — was different. On that day, while shopping at the Tory Burch boutique in Manhasset, Long Island, she says, “It felt like an elephant pressing down on my chest.”
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There, she underwent a CT scan which revealed 90 percent blockage in the heart’s main artery, often called “the widow maker,” and 70 percent blockage in another branch. Dr. Shlofmitz inserted two stents into her arteries to increase blood flow back to the heart.
“Ninety percent blockage — I was shocked,” Lucci tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I’m lucky to be alive.”
For more on Susan Lucci’s health journey, pick up this week’s issue, on newsstands Friday.
In so doing, Lucci — who strictly adheres to her Pilates regime and heart-healthy Mediterranean diet of fruits, vegetables and protein — is shattering the stereotype of who is at risk for heart disease.
“As a woman you think about breast cancer, not a heart attack,” says Lucci. “Every EKG I had was great. My blood pressure was on the lower end of normal.”
But as it turns out, Lucci was at risk due to her family history of heart disease. Her dad, Victor Lucci, had a heart attack in his late forties. As Dr. Andersen explains: “Her risk was due to her father’s arteriosclerosis, a condition that causes plaque buildup, which can cause blockage and hardening (or calcification) of the arteries.”
As Lucci has learned, heart disease kills one out of three women — approximately 400,000 women a year, according to the America Heart Association.
RELATED VIDEO: Susan Lucci is Walking Down the Runway for the American Heart Association
Now as a national volunteer and spokesperson for theAmerican Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign, Lucci is using her heart and her voice to raise awareness. “We often put ourselves on the back burner. But if your body is telling you something, we need to pay attention.”
Happily, he notes, “She has no damage. Her heart is pumping as good as when she was born.”
“Susan telling her story will save lives,” notes her cardiologist Dr. Andersen, who adds, “Everyone should know how to save a life with Hands Only CPR. It takes only one minute to learn atHandsOnly.org.”
source: people.com
