Heeding symptoms means woman's life didn't end at age 37

Tests showed she had a large hole in her heart.
By TRACEY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
When Beth Lavender's husband, Tom, a personal trainer, suggested she elevate the front of her treadmill to obtain a more strenuous workout, she noticed she was getting more fatigued than usual.
Lavender, an office manager at Ohio Heart Institute, asked a doctor there for an echocardiogram, just to be sure everything was all right.
Lavender, who was 37 at the time, was surprised when the doctor said the echo showed something was wrong and that she would need further tests. She was shocked when subsequent tests showed she had a fairly large hole in her heart.
"When [the doctor] told me all this, it wasn't registering," she said.
Lavender was sent to Cleveland Clinic in March of 2001 for surgery to repair the hole.
A blessing
She is doing well now, and said it was a blessing that she had obeyed her instinct to get her heart checked.
"My husband and I really feel the Lord was looking out for me. It's a miracle that my husband pushed me on the treadmill. They told me if I had waited and had it repaired when I was in my 50s, I'd probably be on a list for a heart and lung transplant, because of the way your heart overworks when it has a hole," she said. "It caused the right side to enlarge because it was working so hard."
Lavender said if she hadn't been an employee at the Ohio Heart Institute, she would have never had her heart checked.
"I know myself, I would have just put my treadmill down and kept going. Women always put themselves last, because they have family and they're so busy at work. Women just don't take the time, the half a day to make the appointment and have the tests done," she said.
"Take the time to listen to your body," she urged. "Even though we're so busy and we don't think that it's worth the time, you really need to. You hear more about men having chest pains and going to the hospital, but heart disease is the number one killer of women. Women are so busy, they have so much to do and they just don't worry about themselves."