When a City College associate professor of nursing first began feeling chest pain and tingling in her left arm, she was completely uncertain what it was.
The doctors who tested Evan McCabe told her it was nothing. However, McCabe, a registered cardiology nurse, disagreed.
McCabe, who was diagnosed with heart disease at 47, has been traveling the country to raise awareness of heart disease, which is the highest cause of death for men and women in the United States.
She was a guest on Katie Couric’s new talk show, “Katie” on ABC to discuss her diagnosis, the myths of heart disease and how to recognize its symptoms.
“You have to be your own advocate,” McCabe said on “Katie.”
McCabe’s cardiologist Dr. Noel Bairey Merz attended the show with her.
“Women need to be able to recognize the symptoms of heart disease,” Merz said.
McCabe was ecstatic to meet Couric in New York.
“I wanted to hug her, but I knew I couldn’t,” McCabe said. “But when the cameras went on break, she came up and hugged me, which is a big deal for someone my age!”
The highlight of McCabe’s trip to New York was when she met Barbara Streisand, who donated $10-million to heart disease research.
“We had been looking for someone of her stature to bring some attention to the subject, so we were really excited that it was Barbara,” McCabe said.
A year after her diagnosis, McCabe joined WomenHeart, a coalition for women who suffer from the disease. She became a spokeswoman and a WomanHeart Champion, and said that her commitment to WomenHeart “changed her life.”
She participated in the NutriSystem/WomenHeart “Get Red Dress Ready” challenge in 2010 and lost 40 pounds to raise awareness and circumvent the symptoms of heart disease.
“Unfortunately, the weight didn’t stay off,” McCabe said, upon being congratulated for losing the weight.
After losing the weight, she was featured alongside other WomenHeart Champions on “The Today Show” in February.
Her optimistic approach to her heart condition is what makes McCabe an ideal partner with WomenHeart.
Betty Pazich, the dean of the nursing program, called McCabe “an incredible role model for students, faculty and staff.”
McCabe also works at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where she supports women with heart disease by raising community education about the disease. She will speak at the Sansum Clinic on October 18.
McCabe does political advocacy on heart disease as well. She has flown several times to Washington D.C. to speak to congressmen and senators on the laws of heart disease research.
“Women aren’t smaller versions of men,” McCabe said. “We’re built differently, so heart diseases don’t work the same with us.”
Earlier this year, a law was passed that requires the FDA to enforce the regulation that clinical data reports are to be organized by gender, age and racial subgroup and to authorize grants to educate health care professionals and older women about cardiovascular disease in women as well as men.
