Sally Bee was watching her children play at a birthday party when she was gripped by an intense feeling of impending doom.
Suddenly, the pain hit her. It was excruciating and overwhelming. As she writhed around on the floor in agony, Sally knew something very sinister was happening to her.
“I felt as if a big black cloud was looming over me,” she said. “I understood immediately that it was something very serious happening to me and that it was beyond my control. I collapsed on the floor, feeling as if my chest was being crushed and struggling to breathe. I felt sick and hot and sweaty.”
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Ambulance crews only found a slight abnormality to her heart rhythm but ruled out any heart problems due to her young age and healthy lifestyle. Sally, who was just 36 at the time, was told she may have experienced a panic attack.
After just a few hours at hospital, Sally was sent home with indigestion tablets.
But just a few days later, it happened again. Sally was taken back to hospital as the mystery pain seared through her body and was told she may have a hernia. It wasn’t until doctors stood around a screen looking at the results of her electrocardiogram – a simple test used to check the heart's rhythm and electrical activity – that they discovered what was really happening. Sally was having a heart attack.
“I was really shocked when I found out,” Sally told the Manchester Evening News . “I had three doctors looking at the ECG saying, ‘This is telling us you’re having a heart attack but we don’t believe it’.
“I think it was because I was young and relatively fit. I didn’t drink or smoke so they didn’t expect it to happen.”
While Sally remained in hospital, she had another heart attack the following day, meaning she had suffered three in just a few weeks.
Her heart had sustained so much damage, doctors told her husband and three young children to say their goodbyes. Sally took her final breath and closed her eyes for the last time.
But what happened next has been considered a miracle by the medics caring for Sally – her heart started beating again and she took a gasping breath.
“I was filled with an all-consuming need and desire and passion not to let myself die,” she continued. “I can’t put into words how strong the feeling was.
“Life was really, really difficult. I spent two weeks in hospital with no prognosis of survival. Doctors didn’t think I would last the night. They couldn’t see how I could survive the damage my heart had sustained.”
Following Sallly’s recovery, tests revealed she had coronary artery dissection (SCAD), meaning one of the main arteries supplying blood to the heart had disintegrated. It was so badly damaged surgeons were unable to perform a bypass. There was nothing left to attach the new blood vessels to.
But Sally survived the ordeal – with doctors telling her a less healthy person would have most likely died. Though she was assured the heart attacks would not happen again, further tests revealed Sally had fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD), a rare condition which means blood vessels are narrower in some places and bulge in others.
The arteries in Sally’s brain, neck, heart and legs are all affected, making her more prone to heart attacks and strokes. To date, she has suffered five heart attacks.
“The state of mind and positive thinking was the biggest battle for me,” Sally, now 55, continued. “You can do the physical stuff and exercise and take medication, but the bit I found the hardest is you’re worried all the time that it’s going to happen again.
“I have very regular check-ups and I’m not allowed to do any heavy lifting. Everything is fine, but it can happen in a flash.
“I had a mini heart attack four months ago where I had chest pain and was taken to hospital. Blood tests showed I had an attack, but my heart is okay. I just have to have a very healthy lifestyle and eat healthy food and be as active as I can.”
Sally, who now works as an author, a motivational speaker in health and wellbeing and a healthy cook for ITV, has recently released a book – Don't Go Faster Than Your Guardian Angel Can Fly – which shares important lessons she has learnt throughout her life.
On the new release, she said: “This is the most precious book I have ever written - I poured my (broken) heart and soul into it to help other women realise that their past traumas, failures and vulnerabilities are what make them strong today.
“I am the woman I am because of my traumatic history. I have to celebrate that and so should we all. In this book, I encourage everyone to take their future into their own hands, load their backpacks up with their past experience and be brave enough to step into the unknown and just trust that everything will be okay.”
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