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WEBVTT >> IT WAS LABOR DAY. EMILY: THE KIND OF DAY PARENTS LIVE FOR. >> WE PLAYED ALL MORNING. EMILY: HOURS AFTER TAKING THIS PHOTO, SHE WAS IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM, DIAGNOSED WITH A HEART ATTACK. >> IT WAS COMPLETE SHOCK. EMILY: SHE'S YOUNG, HEALTHY, WITH NO HISTORY OF HEART DISEASE, AND YET THIS ANGIOGRAM FOUND A TEAR. >> IT LOOKS LIKE THERE WAS A FLAP ON THE INSIDE. EMILY: THE CONDITION IS NICKNAMED SCA SPONTANEOUS CORONARY ARTERY DISSECTION. >> THAT IS WHEN THE WALL OF THE ARTERY RIPS OR TEARS OPEN. EMILY: DOCTORS ARE STILL LEARNING THE CAUSES, BUT THEY HAVE SOME CLUES. IT EFFECT SIGNIFICANTLY MORE WOMEN THAN MEN. THE AVERAGE AGE IS 44. AND IT APPEARS TO OCCUR AFTER EXTREME PHYSICAL ACTIVITY OR EMOTIONAL STRESS. >> WHENEVER THERE IS A SURGE OF ADRENALINE TO THE HEART, IT CAN CAUSE IT TO BEAT STRONGLY, AND THE ARTERIES CAN RIP. EMILY: HORMONES ALSO INCREASE THE RISK. WHEN THEY DELIVERED TWO BABIES IN T YEARS AND SHE WAS WORKING OUT THAT AFTERNOON. >> I THOUGHT MAYBE I PULLED A MUSCLE. EMILY: EVEN THE PARAMEDICS THOUGHT SHE WAS HAVING A PANIC ATTACK. >> T SYMPTOMS OF ANXIETY ARE SIMILAR TO CARDIAC SYMPTOMS. WH YOUNG WOMEN GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM. EMILY: UNDIAGNOSED PATIENTS OFTEN RESUME THEIR ROUTINE. >> THE HEART CAN STO BEATING I THAT FIRST SEVERAL DAYS AFTER. EMILY: INSTEAD SHE ENTERED A CARDIAC REHAB PROGRAM TO REPAIR HER HEART. >> THEY FEEL ALMOST BETRAYED BY THEIR BODY. EMILY: WE HAVE NURSES TEACH SAFER EXERCISE AND STRESS MANAGEMENT. >> IT'S HARD WHEN YOU HAVE TWO BABIES AND A JOB. EMILY: TODAY HER PROGNOSIS IS EXCELLENT.HER WORKOUTS HAVE CHANGED , AND SHE TRIES TO EDUCATE OTHER PARENTS ABOUT DOING TOO MUCH. >> YOU DON'T WANT EVERYONE TO PANIC LIKE IT WILL HAPPEN TO THEM, BUT IT IS STILL SHOCKING FOR ME TO SAY IT OUT LOUD. EMILY: DOCTORS HAVE NOT IDENTIFIED A GENETIC CAUSE, FOR THE RESEARCH CONTINUES. THE BELIEVE IT COULD BE LINKED TO SOMETHING CALLED BROKEN HEART

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Lindsay Gervino has a photo showing a perfect play date at the beach last year with her toddler, Andrew. "It was Labor Day," she recalled. "And it was a beautiful sunny day." Click here to watch report They explored the shore while her infant daughter, Julia, napped at home with her husband. "And we played all morning," she said. Just hours later, Gervino was in the emergency room, diagnosed with a heart attack."It was a complete shock," she said. "Complete shock." Gervino is young and healthy with no history of heart disease -- and yet, a coronary angiogram found a tear. "It looked like, if this your artery, that there was a flap kind of doing this on the inside," Gervino demonstrated, using her hand to show an opening. The condition is nicknamed SCAD, which stands for spontaneous coronary artery dissection. And it's not as rare as one might expect. "That is when the wall of the artery actually rips or tears open," said Dr. Malissa Wood, co-director of the Corrigan Women's Heart Health Program at Mass General Hospital.Doctors are still learning the causes, but they have some clues. The condition affects significantly more women than men. The average age of patients is around 44 years old. And it appears to occur after extreme physical activity or emotional stress. "And so it seems whenever there's a surge of adrenaline to the heart, it can cause the heart to beat very strongly," Wood explained. "And these arteries can rip open or tear."Hormones also may increase the risk. Gervino delivered two babies in less than two years and she was working out with heavy weights during the afternoon of her heart attack. "I thought, oh maybe I just pulled a muscle," she said. "Like you do think of all those excuses." Even the paramedics who responded to her husband's 911 call thought at first that Gervino was having a panic attack. "The symptoms of anxiety are very similar to cardiac symptoms," Wood said. "And so that's a frequent reason when young women would go to the emergency room, they would be sent home." Undiagnosed, patients often resume their same routines. "The heart could actually stop beating or having a bad rhythm problem in that first several days of the heart attack," Wood said. Instead, Gervino entered MGH's cardiac rehabilitation program to help repair her damaged heart. "They almost feel like, they're betrayed by their body," described Nancy McCleary, a cardiac rehab nurse. "Like how did this happen?" McCleary and her team teach safer exercises, meditation and stress management. "And that's hard when you've got two little babies and a husband and a job and school," McCleary said. Today, Gervino's prognosis is excellent. Her workouts have changed completely. She also tries to educate other young parents about the dangers of doing too much. "You don't want everyone to panic like it'll happen to them," Gervino said. "But it is. It's shocking. It's still shocking for me to say out loud that it happened." Doctors have not identified a genetic cause for SCAD, but the research at MGH continues. So far, they have collected data for about 100 patients. They do believe the condition could be linked to a phenomenon called "broken heart syndrome," which is a condition where real-life stress causes cardiac problems. MGH's heart center More about SCAD MGH's cardiac rehab program Get the WCVB News App