I don’t really want to be a hypochondriac: A heart disease story

At 76, Naomi Atrubin gets tired, but also stays active with duplicate bridge and book clubs. She goes to a gym and walks on a treadmill. She had chest pains last summer, and she is grateful that she lived to tell her story.

In October 1997, driving to a movie, she had mild chest pains, and blamed it on spicy mustard. She walked three blocks to the theater. The pains worsened. She told a friend she thought she was having a heart attack, but rejected an ambulance because of the likely cost. Her friend drove her to the emergency room, and in the hospital, doctors put in two stents (short mesh tubes to prop open a heart artery).

What if she has that weak feeling, or chest pains again? "I would like to think I would run like hell to an emergency room. But how tired to I have to feel? I don’t really want to be a hypochondriac."

Advice to patients with previous heart attacks: Remember that it’s better to be a live hypochondriac than a dead stoic. Get to a hospital emergency room immediately if it’s possible you’re having a heart attack.

Read another of our heart disease stories, or Gina Kolata’s source story in the April 8 issue of The New York Times.