A Change of Heart: Please take the Yale Heart Study

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Please take the Yale Heart Study

Hey everyone, if you've had a heart attack, the Yale Heart Study would love to hear from you:

http://heartstudy.yale.edu/hacs/

Message from the survey director:

"I am the director of the Yale Heart Study of how people get medical care when they are having symptoms of a heart attack. We are asking people who have had a heart attack to share with us their experiences at our study website: http://heartstudy.yale.edu/hacs/

The goal of this study is to help people get care as quickly as possible when they are having heart attack symptoms.

This survey of heart attack care-seeking is being conducted on the internet and takes about 30 minutes to an hour to complete depending on your experiences.

Participation in this study is completely anonymous.

The study has been approved by the Yale University Institutional Review Board and is funded by the National Institutes of Health. If you have any questions about this study please contact me at heart . study @ yale . edu" (remove the extra spaces in the address before emailing)."

The more people they hear from, the the better.

It took me around 30 minutes to finish, and there's space at the end to add as much info as you'd like about your individual situation.

2 comments:

Yale Heart StudyDecember 28, 2011 at 9:39 AM
Thank you for supporting the Yale Heart Study, Laura! For those who are interested in participating, we are recruiting survey takers until April 2012. Wishing you all health and happiness in the coming New Year. If you have any question, feel free to contact us at heart.study@yale.edu. Please help us, help others. Survey data will be used to ensure future heart attack victims receive the care they need. Much Thanks!
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LauraDecember 28, 2011 at 10:10 AM
Thank YOU for doing this study! I'm happy to help spread the word about it.
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Why am I doing this?

In March of 2009 I had a heart attack. It was as much a surprise to me as it was to the doctors; I don't have any risk factors--no high blood pressure, no diabetes, no clogged arteries, no family history; plus I'm a young (in cardiac terms) female who exercises. Definitely NOT the usual suspect for a heart attack.

But tell that to my body--I had one anyway. Turns out that I experienced a rare thing called a Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection. Don't google the term unless you're prepared to be depressed by mortality rates and statistics, and the fact that doctors really have no clue about what causes some people to have them.

The bright side is that my toast landed butter side up, and I'm still here. In 2009 I put together a one-shot fanzine called A Change of Heart; you can get a PDF copy of it from efanzines.com here. This blog is an extension of that fanzine and an effort to reach more people, both in and out of of the fannish science fiction community.

If you want to read my story from the beginning, I suggest starting with this link to my wonderful husband Paul's journal:

Laura Had A Heart Attack Monday Morning.

He kept up a pretty good running commentary of what was happening while I was still in the hospital, and it starts there. The "Next" and "Previous" links move to later and earlier entries, detailing our experiences.

In October, 2010, I competed in and finished the Chapel Hill Ramblin' Rose Triathlon. These are pictures Paul took of me riding my bike and running (he couldn't get into the pool).