How one woman saved her own life

Sharron McCarthy, of Bedford, N.H., was just 24 when she was diagnosed with high blood pressure. Her doctor prescribed medication to lower it. “I took it for a month and never got the prescription refilled,” admits Sharron, who’s now 43.

Back then Sharron didn’t take her hypertension seriously. She had no health insurance at the time, and she didn’t understand the long-term impact of hypertension. “I felt invincible. I was young, an athlete, and in shape.”

Even after Sharron developed a serious heart rhythm abnormality several years later, she kept up her active lifestyle—and continued to neglect her hypertension.

Playing Russian roulette
The gravity of Sharron’s condition didn’t hit home until she was in her late 20s. During a blood pressure check, the nurse asked, “Are you familiar with Russian roulette? You must enjoy playing it, because you have such high blood pressure and you don’t take anything for it.”

The nurse told Sharron that her blood pressure was 190/110—way above normal, which is 120/80 or below—and that she could have a stroke or heart attack at any time. “No one had ever put it to me that way before,” Sharron recalls.

Sharron is far from alone. Many Americans who need to control their blood pressure, lower their cholesterol, or manage other heart-related conditions fail to keep to their medication regimens. In fact, only about half of us take our medications as prescribed. Failing to take needed medication—or taking it the wrong way—causes more than 100,000 deaths each year.

Getting a wake-up call
Shortly after the nurse’s warning, Sharron’s 54-year-old mother suffered the first of several heart attacks. Her mother’s health crisis prompted Sharron to consult a cardiologist. The cardiologist found that Sharron had an enlarged heart—a heart that is flabby and doesn’t pump blood very well—caused by years of hypertension. The doctor also discovered that Sharron had a congenital heart defect: one large hole and more than 40 small holes in her heart. That’s what was causing her heart rhythm abnormality.

Sharron underwent surgery to repair her heart, and made a commitment to filling—and refilling—all of her prescriptions and taking the medicine according to her doctor’s instructions.

In the years that followed, Sharron witnessed her mother’s premature death from heart failure at age 59, and her father’s death from a heart attack at age 64. All of that—and her desire for a baby—helped keep Sharron on track, despite her stressful and demanding job running a publishing company. “If I could tell people one thing, it’s to be diligent. No one is invincible,” she says.

“I take my pills and have come to terms with always having to take them,” she adds. She also continues her healthy lifestyle, watching her diet, doing yoga, and walking outdoors or on a treadmill at least three days a week. Last year, she competed in a team triathlon and did the bicycle portion of the race.

Dream come true
And the best part? At age 41, Sharron gave birth to her daughter, Lana Jade. She and her husband, Rob, had been trying for many years to start a family. “My doctor said that if I hadn’t gotten my hypertension under control and taken care of the heart defect, I probably would have had a stroke while I was pregnant,” she says. “Our health is precious,” she concludes. “Much of it is up to us—to educate ourselves and be our own advocates.”