EMMY®-winning actress Susan Lucci, who played Erica Kane on the ABC soap opera “All My Children” for more than 40 years, shares life-threatening symptoms she nearly ignored — and why she’s urging women to prioritize their heart health.
Can you tell us what happened the day you first felt something was wrong?
It was in October 2018. My husband and I were waiting to be seated at a restaurant when I felt a very light pressure on my chest. It passed quickly. Two weeks later, I felt it again, this time radiating around my ribcage to my back. I told myself it was probably a new bra — I knew it probably wasn’t, but I think that we try to dismiss these things when we’re very busy people.
A week after that, I was in a boutique shopping for a friend’s birthday present when I felt something I couldn’t ignore — the sensation of an elephant pressing on my chest. I had heard a woman in an interview say many years ago that women’s symptoms for a heart attack can be different from men’s, and what she had felt was an elephant pressing on her chest. I sat down on a bench, and the manager of the boutique asked if I was okay. I told her what I was feeling, and she offered to drive me to St. Francis Hospital, just a mile away. She said she could get me there faster than an ambulance.
I didn’t have any health issues before and didn’t even have a cardiologist there, but my husband did. I called his cardiologist, Dr. Richard Shlofmitz, who answered immediately and told me to come in because my symptoms were substantial.
Still, on the way there, I kept thinking, “I don’t have time for this. It’s my day off. I’m bothering this amazing doctor.” I honestly believed it would just go away.
When we got there, Dr. Shlofmitz was waiting for me. He ordered a cardiac CT scan. The results showed a 90% blockage in my main artery and 75% in the adjacent one. He told me it needed to be fixed immediately. I said that maybe we should wait until morning, when his team is rested, but he said, “My team is already on their way in.” I asked if I could just go home and sleep in my own bed, and he told me I didn’t understand — I could have a widowmaker heart attack at any moment. That sobered me up fast.
They took me to the operating room. I had two stents placed — it was painless. I was discharged the next morning. I truly believe I had two guardian angels that day — my father and my grandmother.
Listen to your body. If it’s not behaving in a way that’s normal for you, act right away. Don’t be afraid to call your doctor. You will not be taking them away from anyone; they need to see you. I would say the No. 1 thing to learn is to put yourself on your to-do list. So many of us are busy, and as women, we’re taking care of our children, our husbands, our homes, our careers, and we are not on our own to-do list at all. If we are, it’s at the very bottom. Please put yourself on your to-do list.
What do you wish more people knew about the risk of heart disease?
I learned that heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, killing seven times more women each year than all cancers combined. I had heard the statistic before, but going through it personally made it real. I want to pay that forward so other women can save their lives, too.
It’s also the top killer globally. The symptoms I described earlier — the pressure, the chest tightness — are all ones women should know. There are others. A couple of years after my first procedure, I had another experience. I was home alone and felt a familiar pressure on my chest. Then I started getting a sharp pain in my jaw — a symptom that I remembered can also indicate heart issues in women. I thought it was a toothache, but it kept coming and going.
My husband had been out. He came home around nine, and I wasn’t even going to tell him. I just couldn’t believe it. I guess I was in denial. About half an hour later, I did tell him that I had been experiencing shortness of breath and the same pressure on my chest. He said, “Well, we have to call the doctor.” I resisted — it was late — but eventually I did. That night, the doctor met me at the hospital and found a 70% blockage. I had a third stent placed.
I wasn’t going to tell anybody that I had slipped back. I had been telling women for three years all the things I told you: Put yourself on your to-do list. Don’t be afraid to call the doctor. Act on the behavior of your body. Yet, I slipped back, and I realized then that it’s more important to tell people that I had slipped back, and maybe there are lessons learned from that, than to keep it to myself.
How did this change your perspective on self-care?
I had asked the doctor the first time I had the stents put in what I should be doing to change my lifestyle. He said, “Actually, don’t change a thing. I know how you eat. I know that you eat salmon and kale and blueberries. I know you work out almost every single day, doing pilates. So, don’t change a thing. Just go in for checkups every six months.”
Talk to your doctor about your family history. My doctor told me that this all came from my dad. It’s a calcium buildup, and it will take many more years for more calcium to build up. I think that’s something that maybe we do as women — we identify with our same sex parent in terms of family history. However, the truth is, of course, we get genes from both of our parents, and I just don’t think I ever told a doctor about my family history on both sides. I lost my mother when she was 104, and because, apart from this heart issue, I never had another health issue, we thought I had all my mother’s genes. However, the truth is that I inherited both sets of genes.
Keep reevaluating where you are in terms of your diet and your exercise. Go to your doctor and tell him your family history, and again, take good care of yourself. Do the exercise you like to do, keep on moving, keep on eating healthy, make smart choices for yourself, and remember to tell your family history to the doctor.
What role do screening tools like EKGs or CT scans play?
They’re incredibly important. Before that first incident, I had had my yearly checkup, and my EKG was perfect. The EKG serves as a standard to judge against. So, my doctor was able to tell what my EKG was that day as opposed to the one I had had just a few months earlier. It had changed. What I understand about EKGs is that they tell you how you are at that moment, but they also become a standard by which any kind of further incident can be judged against. If there is a deviation from the first one when you have a heart issue, that’s a good measure for doctors. Screening tools save lives, and even more so when there’s a baseline to compare to.
You’ve become a strong advocate for heart health. What has that journey been like?
It’s been one of the most rewarding parts of my life. On the way home from the hospital that first time, I said to my husband, “I have to pay this forward.” I couldn’t just keep that experience — and that luck — to myself.
I called my publicist and asked her to help me share my story. What saved my life was remembering that interview I had heard many years before from a woman who was not a celebrity, and I had no reason to even remember it. I mean, I was probably in my early 20s when I heard that interview. I thought, well, maybe, if I can tell my experience now in real time, maybe one woman out there will be lucky like I was, and will remember and help themselves. So, I tell women to put themselves on their to-do list and pay attention to their bodies. If it isn’t responding and behaving in a way that is normal for you, take action. Call the doctor, go to the ER at the best hospital that’s nearby, and get checked out. Those things will save your life.
I went on “World News Tonight,” “Good Morning America,” and many others to get the message out. The response has been incredible. The most gratifying thing is to hear how not only women hear the message, but women talk to their husbands and get those husbands to go to the doctor, too. I have encountered them in places, everywhere you can think of, and people come up to me and thank me. I can’t tell you how important that is to me and how gratifying it has been. There’s nothing more fulfilling than knowing your story helped someone else live.
