Creve Coeur woman delivers heartfelt message: ‘Live to Dance’

Ellen Abramson looks like the picture of health. The 54-year-old Creve Coeur resident is pretty and fit. She works as a Weight Watchers leader and loves to work out.

But three years ago, Abramson was far from healthy. In April 2008, at the age of 51, she suffered cardiac arrest.

“I was literally dead,” Abramson said. “I wasn’t breathing; my heart wasn’t beating.”

It happened on a Sunday morning. She had plans to attend a Cardinals baseball game with her family and celebrate her daughter’s 27^th birthday over dinner, but those plans were not to be.

A little after 9 a.m., Abramson experienced sudden chest pain. She began sweating profusely and felt a burning sensation in her chest.

About 40 minutes after those initial symptoms, Abramson arrived at Missouri Baptist Medical Center in Town & Country, where Dr. Greg Beirne was just beginning his shift.

According to Beirne, who recalled the details of that morning in “Live to Dance,” Abramson’s new book about women and heart disease, his patient was in the right place at the right time.

“She arrived at 10:08 a.m., experienced a cardiac arrest 18 minutes later, and was resuscitated within 30 seconds,” Beirne wrote. “She was in the cardiac cath lab 30 minutes later. This type of scenario could not be planned better – all of the people and resources needed were in the right place at the right time. … A delay of just five or 10 minutes could have been the difference between life and death.”

In the weeks leading up to that day, Abramson knew that something was not right.

“I was trying to work full-time, and I had no energy,” she said. “I was a person who would work out at least an hour six days a week, and I couldn’t do much but lay on the couch. I was totally exhausted.”

Although she kept regular OB-GYN appointments and had an annual mammogram, Abramson was “kind of afraid of doctors” and avoided check-ups with an internist.

But the exhaustion and nagging heartburn prompted her to seek medical advice.

“I went to a ‘doc-in-the-box’ because I didn’t want a thorough exam,” she said. “There was never a conversation about heart health. He just gave me an antacid and told me to slow down.”

Now, Abramson wants other women to know their heart disease risks, something about which she knew very little until after her ordeal.

“I got home from the hospital, I went to the computer, and I read, “One in three women die from heart disease – and I literally thought it was a man’s disease. I lost both grandfathers to heart disease, and I had no idea that I needed to concern myself. I learned that more women die from heart disease than the top five leading causes of death.”

Still dealing with what she calls “survivor’s guilt,” she feels she is “supposed to” get the word out to other women.

“You have to be proactive, and you have to understand you your heart health risks,” she said. “Do you need to lose weight? What is your BMI (body mass index)? What is your waist measurement? What is your cholesterol? Do you smoke? Do you exercise? Do you have diabetes? What is your blood pressure?

“You have to go to an internist that you trust, and you need to have a conversation. Since one in three women die from heart disease, I don’t care if it’s not in your family or not – you need to have that conversation with your doctor.”

Abramson admitted that she hopes her book will scare women into being proactive about heart health.

“My children and my husband write in the book about what it’s like to watch that (cardiac arrest) happen,” she said. “The mantra of the book is me dancing at my daughter’s wedding. … Your kids want you to be there on their birthdays. They want you to be there a their weddings.”