When Sandy Unitas agreed to talk about her late husband?s battle with heart disease, she had no idea how personal that speech would become.
“After I got to thinking about it for a week or two, I thought I needed to get tested myself,” she said. “I had no signs of heart problems whatsoever, but I knew I wasn?t in the best of shape.”
She got tested at the University of Maryland Medical Center on Oct. 19, 2006. Within hours chief cardiologist Dr. Mandeep Mehra urged her to go across the street to the hospital for a catheterization to relieve a coronary artery that was 95 percent blocked.
“You could have knocked me over with a feather because there?s not a history of heart disease in my family,” Unitas said.
Initially, she was to talk about sports legend Johnny Unitas? ordeal to Sister to Sister, a national organization devoted to fighting women?s heart disease.
When she addressed a breakfast meeting of women executives in November, however, Unitas had her own story to tell about heart disease and the importance of getting tested.
“Everybody was moved by her story,” said organizer Allison Buchalter, who will oversee Friday?s Baltimore Health Fair for Sister to Sister. “Everybody was very surprised. It wasn?t what she initially set out to talk about.”
After the breakfast, 80 powerful female business leaders from the Baltimore region headed straight to the screening area to get checked out.
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Although heart disease is sometimes thought of as a man?s disease, it is the leading cause of death for both women and men in the United states,” according to a May 2006 report on the disease.
More than half of heart disease deaths are women and nearly 29 percent of all women die of the disease.
IF YOU GO
What: National Women?s Heart Day health fair
When: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday
Where: Baltimore Convention Center, Hall D
1 W. Pratt St., Baltimore
