"I had a Heart Attack in My 20s".

Tatijana Shoan was an energetic 27-year-old when she was crippled by excruciating pains. Later, she learned her doctors' misdiagnosis could have cost her life.

* By the time I turned 27, I had a very successful career as an international makeup artist. I was always on the run, so to keep myself healthy, I exercised, ate organic food, took vitamins, and did not drink or smoke. But suddenly, my fast-paced lifestyle came to a grinding halt. On September 4, 2000, I felt the first symptoms of what turned out to be a damaging heart attack. I was close to dying but nobody knew why...or how to help me. Even now, my doctors aren't sure why this happened to me--it's very unusual for a young, otherwise healthy woman to have heart disease. What they do know is that I'll be dealing with the aftereffects for the rest of my life.

Hit Without Warning

Last spring, my parents were separating and my boyfriend of one year broke up with me. To get my mind off things, I threw myself into my work. I live in New York City and had a job with a growing cosmetics company for which we were scheduled to open a new store in Philadelphia on September 7. Early in the morning of September 4, I woke up drenched in sweat, aching all over. Assuming I had the flu, I spent the day in bed so I'd be in top form for my trip. Two days later, the sweats had stopped and my severe body aches were lessening. That evening, I sucked it up and drove to Philadelphia with two coworkers. But halfway there, the pain returned. I had an unbearable ache in my back, chest, shoulders, arms, and jaw and difficulty swallowing and breathing. We got to the hotel, and I collapsed in my bed. I felt a little better the next morning, so I forced myself to go to the store opening, where I spent the day greeting people and doing their makeup. At the end of the day, I called my aunt, a registered nurse, and described my symptoms. She was concerned and told me to go to the ER immediately.

My coworkers dropped me off at a Philadelphia hospital that evening where I was examined. One doctor thought that I had gallstones that needed to be removed and perhaps something was wrong with my pancreas. Another speculated that my strange body aches had been caused by a high fever. Things only became more confusing when my blood work indicated that I had a kidney infection. I was discharged a few hours later with a prescription for antibiotics and told to come back if the pain didn't go away in a couple of days.

Facing Death

The next day, I awoke with pain in my chest, arms, back, and jaw that was 100 times worse than before, but it still never occurred to me that anything could be wrong with my heart. I was supposed to make an appearance on a local TV show, and on the way to the set, I called the hospital from my cell phone. When I described my pain, the ER nurse told me to come in immediately, but the hospital was out of the way and we were late for live television. I suppose I could have insisted that my coworkers let me out of the car and then called an ambulance, but I was embarrassed 150 and scared of losing my job. Near hysterics, I called my aunt again. My uncle answered, and when he heard what was happening, he said, "Honey, it sounds like you're having a heart attack."