Marilyn Smedberg-Gobbett lived with a rapid heart-rate condition for nearly 30 years. She would drive herself to the emergency room whenever it would strike, as frequently as twice a month when episodes were at their worst.
"I'm a stubborn Swede who learned to tough it out," she said of her days living in New Hampshire. "Doctors didn't see the need to investigate my problem, and I was happy to live in denial. Like many women, I was a wife and working mother and hardly had time to be ill."
At 260 beats per minute, her heart rate was occasionally so rapid it was labeled uncountable by doctors, recalled Smedberg-Gobbett, who said the average resting heart rate for women is about 75 beats per minute.
Her heart's sudden, ferocious pounding "made me feel like it was going to break out of my chest," said Smedberg-Gobbett. She said doctors would stop her heart for a few seconds with medication and restart it to restore its normal rhythm.
By age 56, though, she had sold her 12-year-old catering business and gotten divorced. But it was a third decision later that same year of 2002 -- to move from rural New Hampshire to Maryland -- that probably saved her life, she said.
"Doctors down here finally took my heart health seriously," she said, "and so did I."
After two heart procedures -- cardiac ablation, a cauterization of damaged heart tissue to disrupt rapid heart rate, and emergency double bypass surgery a year later in 2005 -- and with the aid of medication, Smedberg-Gobbett said her heart rate is 55 beats per minute.
In search of women with similar experiences after her surgery, Smedberg-Gobbett discovered WomenHeart, a Washington-based national support and advocacy group for women living with heart disease.
"This organization does what no other does -- it connects women with other women who have already walked in the shoes and worn out the leather," said Smedberg-Gobbett, 61, who remarried in 2004 and lives in Laurel.
Smedberg-Gobbett took over last month as coordinator of the organization's Central Maryland chapter, which meets monthly in Columbia.
"Having heart surgery can be very isolating," she said, explaining that WomenHeart is devoted entirely to women's issues. It provides information and acts as a lifeline for the roller coaster of emotions that accompany heart disease.
The group's brochure states: "No one knows what it's like to be you. Except us."
At her first session, she met Erin O'Connell Peiffer, who grew up in Howard County and lives in Eldersburg with her husband and three children. She had been serving as the local chapter's interim coordinator until a replacement could be found.
Peiffer said she was taking a water aerobics class in 2001 when she started coughing, her lungs crackling as she weakly inhaled. Thinking she might be having an asthma attack, though she had no history of that disease, she drove to Carroll Hospital Center in Westminster.
The emergency room doctor there told her she was suffering from congestive heart failure and flash pulmonary edema brought on by a virus, she said. A month after the diagnosis, she underwent emergency double bypass heart surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She was 39.
Peiffer was determined to regain her health and showed up for post-surgery cardiac rehabilitation only to be the only woman in a roomful of elderly men. "I thought, 'There's got to be a better way to do this,'" she said.
Her search for a women's support group also ended when she found WomenHeart. Peiffer's photograph and story appear on the group's Web site.
WomenHeart bills itself as "the only patient-led national nonprofit organization that educates and advocates for the 8 million American women living with heart disease."
Statistics on the group's Web site state that heart disease kills 32 percent of American women, making it their leading cause of death. Heart attacks kill six times as many women as breast cancer, according to the organization.
Peiffer encouraged Smedberg-Gobbett to take over as coordinator of the local chapter. To prepare for her position, she attended WomenHeart's four-day educational forum in October at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., along with 58 women from across the country.
In exchange for free seminars led by physicians and communications experts, the women agree to devote 24 community service hours to spreading WomenHeart's message, she said.
To that end, Smedberg-Gobbett will participate in a cardiovascular clinic sponsored by Howard County General Hospital from 9 a.m. to noon Feb. 23 near Lord & Taylor at The Mall in Columbia. Dr. Monica Aggarwal, a cardiologist, will discuss "Your Heart: What You Should Know About Risk Factors and Prevention" at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Smedberg-Gobbett will talk about heart disease from the patient's perspective.
"I have always been a volunteer -- for United Way and the Salvation Army, among other causes," she said. "Now I am passionate about educating women about their heart health. My feet hit the floor every day, thank God, and more women need to be touched by this organization."
The next meeting of the Central Maryland chapter of WomenHeart will be held at 10 a.m. Feb. 20 at Nordstrom's cafe. The meeting time and location alternates between morning sessions at The Mall in Columbia and 7 p.m. sessions at the Wellness Center in the Columbia Medical Building, 11055 Little Patuxent Parkway. Information: e-mail Smedberg-Gobbett at reddress05@verizon.net.
Also, Erin Peiffer is working toward founding a Carroll County chapter of WomenHeart and invited interested women to e-mail her at erinocpeiffer@msn.com.
Neighbors
Is someone in your neighborhood worth writing about? Is there an event that everyone in Howard County should be aware of? Neighbors columnist Janene Holzberg wants to know about it. E-mail Janene at jholzberg76@msn.com, or call 410-461-4150.