By EMS1 Staff
NEEPAWA, Canada — A paramedic is urging women to trust their gut when it comes to health issues after suffering three heart attacks herself.
Global News reported that Kim Forsman was turned away from the hospital in 2006 when she went in and said she was experiencing mild heart attack symptoms.
“I was told because I didn’t really fit the symptoms that cardiac patients had, that I was fine and to go home and take a day off work, and if I had more symptoms, I could see my regular physician,” Forsman said.
The 27-year veteran paramedic knew something was wrong based on her training.
I knew, I started popping aspirins like they were Tic Tacs. Two days later, I presented at the hospital in critical condition and was taken in to Winnipeg where I found out I had not only had one heart attack, I had three, and I had a triple heart bypass at the age of 45,” Forsman said.
Forsman is now using her experience to urge other women to trust their gut and take symptoms seriously.
“Women need to be heard, they need to be taken seriously and I think women need to trust their own gut instinct,” Forsman said. “If you feel something’s not right, you need to push for investigation, because not all people would be as lucky as I was – to come out of it and be in fairly good health.”