Women And Heart Disease: Why Are You An Advocate? - Dr. Smolens

Dr. Smolens:

A lot of people ask me, what inspires me to be a spokesperson for women and heart disease, and I think the obvious answer is, “Oh, she is a heart surgeon. That must be what gets her motivated.” Well, that’s a part of it, and that makes sense, but the real part is actually very personal and I think for many of us in medicine it tends to come to that kind of root cause.

My dad died when he was 36 years of age of a heart attack. Back in the late 60s when people really had no knowledge of heart disease, all they knew was that he died of a heart attack. Angioplasties, stents weren’t popular at that point; neither was bypass surgery.

I was a very young child; I was six. It affected my entire life. As an adult, my mom had diabetes and heart disease and she actually died from complications of strokes and vascular disease just before her 71st birthday. I have a young child at home and I really do not want her to have to go through what I went through, and so it’s on behalf of her, and in honor of my parents, that I am here today speaking.

About Dr. Smolens, M.D.:
Board Certified Cardiothoracic Surgeon Iva Smolens, M.D., serves as medical director of the Women's Heart Center at Banner Heart Hospital in Mesa, Arizona. She currently serves on the American Heart Association’s Board of Directors for the Phoenix metropolitan area.

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• Heart Disease