EAST GREENBUSH, N.Y. (NEWS10) — A New York woman said a simple medical test helped save her life. Now she and her doctor want to share a critical message about heart health. “I was somebody who had no symptoms, no shortness of breath, no chest pain, nothing. I usually walk about 20,000 steps a day,” said Mickey Jenkins.
But after a close friend suffered a heart attack Mickey said she asked her doctor for a calcium score test to take a closer look at her own cardiac health. “You lay in the machine. It goes in the first time they say, ‘Take a deep breath’, it comes out. You go a second time, take a deep breath, you’re done. It took me longer to walk down the hallway than it did to get in the machine to get the test,” explained Jenkins.
The results of the test are fast. Mickey’s doctor explained to NewsNation affiliate WTEN the immediate danger that the test alerted him to. “That blockage in here, if you only have that we still call that a Widow Maker,” said St. Peter’s Health Partners Cardiac Surgeon Dr. Sulaiman Hasan.
“I was a ticking time bomb. They told me I couldn’t even leave the hospital. That’s how bad it was,” exclaimed Jenkins. “So, they did the surgery, and five days later, I was released.”
Word of mouth spread about Mickey’s test results finding a significant issue and several East Greenbush Volunteer Firefighters signed on to get one, some already aware of the importance of the test.
David Cook already who already had a test done explained, “I’m like, I’m in good shape. And, you know, not that old, but. And then when I decided to get it, it came 48. It wasn’t totally shocking but I was surprised because I do work out a lot”
Calcium scores go up to 400 and anything above that is considered a very high risk of heart disease. some scores are in the thousands like Linda Mulheren’s was. “2400 it’s a little over, I see my cardiologist on Monday,” said Mulheren.
Volunteer fire fighter Rick Williams, who like Mickey, also feels people need to know about the life saving test said, “$90 out of your pocket and not covered by insurance, which that was a big thing. They stressed to you when you went, which I mean, $90 to save someone’s life.”
Dr. Hasan said one reason to get the test is age, anyone between the ages of 40 to 75 could ask for the test. “The other[s] would be family history of premature coronary disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking. If you have these, I think it would give you a good yield,” explained the cardiac surgeon.