Council Member's Heart Attack Leads to Resolution in Doylestown

She was walking her dog in Doylestown when she felt a sharp, stabbing pain in her chest.

It was Christmas Day, and Marlene Pray was having a heart attack.

"I am in otherwise great health, and would not fit the profile," Pray said this week, calling her attack a "radical and rude awakening. It has really opened my eyes to the impact of heart disease."

Pray, a newly elected member of Doylestown Borough Council, worked with borough solicitor David Conn to write a resolution recognizing February as Heart Health Awareness Month.

Her fellow members of Borough Council this week unanimously approved the resolution, which also designates February 3 as Wear Red Day.

Pray said she led the charge because she wanted to increase awareness about women's experiences with heart disease, in particular. Though Pray's attack, with its sharp chest pain, fits the classic symptoms, many women's heart attacks come with symptoms ranging from dizziness to abdominal pain.

Now in cardiac rehab at Doylestown Hospital, Pray presented the department's clinical manager, David Martens, a framed copy of the signed resolution.

"This deeply personal experience has opened my eyes to not only my own risks, but to the grave risks that one in three adults face," Pray told DoylestownPatch before the council meeting, "and the largely untapped opportunities to prevent and reverse heart disease by addressing nutrition and exercise."

For more information specifically on women and heart disease, visit the National Coalition for Women With Heart Disease.