Doctors say heart attacks at a young age are not unheard of

One of the biggest myths about heart attacks is thinking you’re too young to have one, but suffering one at a young age isn’t unheard of.

“Not in a thousand years could I have guessed that I was suffering from a heart attack. I just had a baby, I was young, I was healthy, I don’t have any history of heart failure or anything like that. I was caught completely off guard,” said Sumerli Lynch.

She was 29- not an age often associated with heart attacks.

“I didn’t believe them. I’m so used to seeing what’s on TV, and it’s always the elderly people,” she said.

“You think of somebody who is older, who has a lot of bad lifestyles, such as smoking, they have the severe chest pain, crushing chest pain,” said Lynch’s cardiologist, Blake Wachter.

Lynch’s heart attack resulted from a complication after giving birth.

“After that my heart just continued to deteriorate, and I went into congestive heart failure andI was in congestive heart failure for 6 months,” she said.

“She needed advanced therapies that ultimately resulted in a heart transplant,” said Wachter.

” I have passed away with a heart attack, I’ve been on life support, I’ve went through kidney and liver failure,” Lynch said. “Every day is a gift in our lives, and you really don’t know what the next minute, what the next hour, what the next day, what the next year will bring to you. You have to live every moment to its fullest.”