‘Fit and active’ mum, 44, told her ‘textbook symptoms’ were just a panic attack left fighting for life

A FIT and healthy mum was left fighting for her life after she had her "textbook typical" heart attack symptoms dismissed as a panic attack.

Mary McFarland, 44, experienced "a crushing pain" in her chest that spread down to her arm while she was at work in October 2024.

3

3

The mum, from Antrim, Northern Ireland, was left breathless and sweating from the sudden, agonising pain - but was shocked to be told by paramedics that a panic attack was the cause of it.

Mary was taken to hospital by a colleague, where it was later confirmed that she had in fact suffered a heart attack - caused by a tear to the wall of her coronary artery, which supplies blood to the heart.

The 44-year-old - who lives with her husband and three boys, aged 6, 10 and 12 - recalled feeling unwell in the days before the incident, but put her symptoms down to the lingering effects of a stomach bug she'd experienced the week before.

The medicinal chemist said: “I had felt exhausted and unwell on the Monday of that week but put it down to the after effects of my stomach bug and took a day off work to recover.

“Then on the Wednesday night I took a bad pain in my chest when I was running around putting the kids to bed.

"Again I thought my earlier stomach bug had given me indigestion and I took tablets for it. However it just wouldn’t settle and took me a while to get to sleep.

“I am very aware of the symptoms of a heart attack but I never thought in my early 40s and having a healthy diet, that it could happen to me.”

It comes as the number of people in Northern Ireland affected by heart diseases has reached a “tipping point”, according to the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

Mary joined the charity in raising awareness around cardiovascular health.

The mum said: “Before my heart attack I was working full time and was fairly active with three young boys and I’d also recently taken up rowing with my local club.

“It was a Friday morning and I was in work as part of an interview panel. I had walked up and down the stairs a few times and said to a colleague I felt so out of breath.

“I put it down to not having quite recovered from a vomiting bug I’d had the previous Sunday.

“I did the first interview and was feeling good, then the second interviewee came in. Ten minutes in, I felt a crushing pain in my chest and it spread down my arm.

“I thought it will go in a minute or two. When I was interviewing I was trying to take notes and I couldn’t even hold the pen, my arms were so weak.

“Then the sweating started, I had to get up, so I got up and left the room and I collapsed just outside the door.

“Thankfully a colleague had followed me out and saw me collapse and came to my aid. I felt like I was struggling to breathe.

“I had been a first aider in work for 15 years and my immediate thought was, I’m having a heart attack. My colleague phoned the emergency services and got the defib ready.

People say when a lady has a heart attack she has symptoms that are not typical. Mine were textbook typical but they were still ignored

Mary McFarland

“The pain in my chest started to settle a bit and I was able to start talking but my arms and legs were still full of pins and needles and I was short of breath.”

The ambulance team arrived and did an ECG on Mary, who was shocked be told by the paramedics that she was OK and just having a panic attack.

They said for her own piece of mind she could go and get a blood test.

Mary said: “I knew it wasn’t a panic attack so I repeated I was the one interviewing, I wasn’t being interviewed, however it didn’t make a difference."

A colleague of Mary’s then took her to the hospital.

She was swiftly admitted once medics spotted that her troponin levels were elevated - a protein released into the bloodstream when the heart muscle is damaged.

Mary said: “With my age and no medical history of heart issues, the doctor was very surprised with the high troponin levels in my body which suggested a heart attack.”

Mary’s chest pains continued when she was at The Mater Hospital from the Friday night through the weekend and on Sunday, she was transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast.

Mary said: “Until this point I wasn’t convinced I’d had a heart attack.

"On the Friday the cardiologist had told me the heart can sometimes have episodes and that my troponin levels had indicated that my heart was under stress.

“I thought maybe I’m doing too much – I have three kids, a full-time job, and the kids go to football and rugby. I leave the house early for work in Belfast to beat the traffic so my days are long."

3

But her cardiologist the Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast was "very clear [...] that there was too much evidence to suggest anything other than a heart attack.”

An angiogram - a medical imaging technique used to visualise blood vessels - confirmed that Mary's heart attack had been caused spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD).

The mum was told she'd be able to go home as the tear would heal on its own, but that night she woke up with “the same horrible pain in my chest” and the cardiology team took her for another angiogram.

This revealed a blood clot on her heart which had blocked the artery and Mary had to have a balloon angioplasty procedure to widen the artery and save her life.

Mary was told by the team she was "a special case" and kept in hospital for another week.

She was discharged in October 2024 and has been slowly recovering - but the process hasn't been straightforward as the mum has since had chest pain and another two stays in hospital.

Since starting cardiac rehabilitation in January of this year, Mary has begun to slowly build up strength and fitness again.

She says: “When I was first discharged from hospital I was quite afraid to do anything.

"The cardiac rehab has helped so much and the team in Antrim have been amazing in helping me exercise safely and gain confidence in my body again.

"I started with gentle walks and have now built up to gym-based work.”

Mary has now made great progress on her recovery journey and is back to work full-time, taking her boys to their sports and she’s also recently started back to her rowing club.

She says: “I am quite a positive person, I know it would be very easy to be afraid and not trust your body anymore, but I know that I’m doing everything I can to build up my strength and reduce stress.

“My colleagues, family and friends were in such disbelief at what happened to me so I would like to raise awareness to encourage everyone to be aware of their heart health.

“A lot of time people say when a lady has a heart attack she has symptoms that are not typical. Mine were textbook typical but they were still ignored.

“The main thing is to trust your own body and if you think there’s something not right, go with what you believe and get checked out.”

The BHF warned that 4,227 people passed away from heart and circulatory diseases in 2023 - the highest number since 2012.

Of these deaths, 1,133 were before the age of 75, with 500 in working age adults.

Since 2020, there has been a 12 per cent rise in heart failure diagnoses in Northern Ireland, up to a record high of 21,701, the charity added.

The number of people being diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and diabetes - both risk factors for heart attacks - have also reached record highs, rising to 47,101 and 114,673 respectively.

Cardiac waiting lists have also grown and at the end of December 2024, with 3,002 people were on the waiting list for cardiac surgery or treatment - up nearly 30 per cent on the same period in 2019.

The BHF said it was launching a new strategy to revolutionise how we prevent and treat cardiovascular disease and save countless lives.

Fearghal McKinney, Head of BHF Northern Ireland, said: “We are at a tipping point in Northern Ireland’s cardiovascular health, with the prevalence of many heart diseases and risk factors at a record high, but we’re entering an era of immense scientific opportunity that can turn this tide.

“By driving a research revolution, we can reverse this worrying trend and save and improve more lives than ever before.

"The BHF's new strategy will be key to this, as we aim to save many more families the heartbreak of losing loved ones far too soon.”

As part of its new strategy, the BHF is urging Northern Ireland to use advances in "data science, artificial intelligence and behavioural sciences to detect and treat those at risk much earlier".

It also pledges to "significantly increase investment in cardiovascular research".

By 2035, the charity wants the UK to prevent 125,000 heart attacks and strokes, reduce early deaths from cardiovascular disease by 25 per cent, and reduce the number of years lost to heart-related ill health by 25 per cent by 2035.