Disturbing drop in cardiac health checks during pandemic

One in four of us will die of heart disease but for many, like Rowena Newman — a fit and healthy mum of two — a cardiac arrest can come out of the blue.

Rowena Newman was a fit 47-year-old mother of two and never considered herself at risk of a cardiac arrest, but last November, she woke at 3am with her racing heart jumping out of her chest.

She rang her mother who said “call an ambulance”. Ms Newman asked her daughter to ring for help. Claudia, just 11, called Triple 0 and braved the dark outside their Dulwich Hill house to usher in the paramedics.

“I didn’t’ know if I could make it through the call, so I yelled out to Claudia. I said I need you to call the ambulance,” Ms Newman said.

The paramedics arrived around the same time Ms Newman’s mother Stephanie. Within minutes Ms Newman went into cardiac arrest. Paramedics did CPR and used a defibrillator to get her heart beat back. In hospital, she went into cardiac ­arrest two more times.

Rowena Newman with daughter Claudia 11, son Daniel 13 and her mother Stephanie Newman. Rowena was 47 yrs old, fit, healthy and busy with her career and two children when she had a cardiac arrest at home on the 6th of November 2020. Claudia was the one who called triple-0. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Her story illustrates a key component of a new campaign, Saving Hearts, by the Heart Foundation, which aims to remind of the ­devastating ripple effect a heart attack or stroke can have on an entire family.

The campaign also aims to highlight a disturbing fall in people checking their cholesterol of filling scripts because if pandemic restrictions.

“Mum was pretty traumatised, she witnessed it and needed support for some months after that, so very tough for her,” Ms Newman said.

While her son Daniel, 13, and Claudia were spared witnessing the actual arrest, they were deeply affected.

‘You can’t un-ring the bell, life is no longer unicorns and rainbows for them, they now know people you love can die and it can happen really ­suddenly and they have been introduced to that in shocking way,” Ms Newman said.

An estimated 1.2 million Australians have heart disease and it causes 27 per cent of all deaths.

Prof Garry Jennings, chief medical officer with the Heart Foundation said on the eve of the Saving Hearts campaign: “It is about raising awareness that this is a problem that has not been solved yet, it is still our biggest killer and it’s a huge human burden.”