I Had a Heart 
Attack at 35. 
This is My Story.

A rare, spontaneous heart condition 
called SCAD almost cost me my life.

MORGAN DRUTCHAS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS 

Health

I

t was an ordinary 
Wednesday at my new job 
as a 35-year-old human 
resources manager when I 
began to have chest pain unlike 
anything I’
d ever experienced. 
The pain was searing; I went 
from sweating hot to cold 
and clammy. My colleague, 
whom I had known only for a 
couple days, looked at me with 
concern. “We are calling 9-1-1.” 
Everything in me wanted to 
fight this. I was a petite, healthy 
and fit young woman with no 
cardiac risks, perfect cholesterol 
and blood pressure, and no 
family history of heart attacks. I 
exercised regularly, maintained 
a healthy weight, never did 
drugs or smoked cigarettes, had 
just spent a week climbing the 
Mayan ruins in Mexico without 
issue and hadn’
t even been on 
oral contraceptives in years. 
I had no idea what this was, 
but I was as concerned about 
cardiac issues as I was about 
an alien invasion. And yet even 
as I thought my colleague was 
overreacting, I was experiencing 
the oddest pain of my life. 
The shocking and terrifying 

events that occurred in the days 
following have changed my life. 
I suffered two heart attacks only 
four days apart; the second was 
so severe and life-threatening 
that I spent three weeks in 
the cardiac intensive care unit 
on the brink of death, with 
stents, a cardiac pump and IV 
medications to help my heart 
contract. 

SPONTANEOUS CORONARY 
ARTERY DISSECTION
So, what happened? I suffered 
from a Spontaneous Coronary 
Artery Dissection (SCAD), 

which occurs when the inner 
lining of the heart’
s coronary 
arteries tears, causing blood to 
pool and halting blood flow and 
oxygen to critical heart muscle, 
leading to a heart attack. 
This is not the type of heart 
attack we commonly think of, 
the one caused by a buildup 
of cholesterol plaque. Because 
I’
m not in the demographic 
commonly considered at risk 
for heart disease (namely older 
males, those with diabetes, 
those who smoke, etc.), the 
thought I might be experiencing 
a heart attack surprised even 

the colleague who witnessed it. 
I’
ve learned that SCAD 
is more common than we 
think: The American Heart 
Association says it is the 
leading cause of heart attacks 
for women between the ages of 
35 and 50. An overwhelming 
number of all SCAD cases 
occur spontaneously in young 
women, with no known cause. 
Unfortunately, there’
s no way to 
test who’
s at risk or know when 
it’
s happening until you have a 
heart attack. That’
s why it’
s so 
important to spread awareness 
about this dangerous condition. 
SCAD remains largely 
undiscussed in the broader 
community. The first medical 
study wasn’
t completed until 
2018, even though the medical 
community has known of the 
condition since 1931. The 
harmful bias that only older 
males have heart attacks still 
exists, both within healthcare 
and the population at large. 
Even when I went into the 
second ER with severe chest 
pain, my sister, a physician who 
happened to be in town that 
weekend, advocated for me to 

42 | MARCH 26 • 2020 

As a healthy young woman, Morgan 
Drutchas of Bloomfield Hills enjoyed 
travel and the outdoors.

Climbing Mayan ruins in Mexico

COURTESY OF MORGAN DRUTCHAS

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