SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — February is American Heart Month , and a woman from Suffolk wants to share her story about a rare heart condition doctors diagnosed her with less than a year ago.
In 2023, Kim Atkins went from being a woman “on the go” to a woman in the hospital bed. Atkins said she had terrible indigestion one day in May. After the second day of continued discomfort, she called her friend, who’s a nurse, and was encouraged to go to the hospital.
Atkins said the pain started to move into her jaw, and doctors ran several tests on her. Atkins thought her condition would be minor. Instead, a heart attack was confirmed.
“When I went in, I was barking about the fact that I was going to be going to Disney World in five days, so I didn’t have time for this,” Atkins said, while laughing.
Meanwhile, while Atkins was hospitalized, she suffered a second heart attack. Doctors began to run more tests on her to figure out what was happening.
“I remember when I was in my angiogram, I was loopy, but … at the last minute I told the doctor I have fibromuscular dysplasia,” Atkins said.