Heart murmur check leads to life-saving surgery
When Cherie Clark found out she had a life-threatening hereditary heart defect she immediately urged her family to get checked.
And when the same defect was found in her mother and a heart issue identified in her sister, Clark became passionate about raising awareness around heart conditions.
In 2013 the Hamilton mother-oftwo was training for a marathon when she fainted at lights in Hamilton and knocked herself out.
An accident and emergency doctor discovered a heart murmur that Clark knew about but had been told was “as common as a cold”.
“But he said, ‘Oh I think I’d like to get that checked out,’ so if it hadn’t been for a very thorough doctor I think I’d never have known.”
Clark, then 44, was diagnosed with a bicuspid aortic valve (BAVD). She realised the death of her grandfather at age 48 and his brother at age 46 from heart attacks was linked.
The birth defect meant Clark’s heart valve had only two prongs instead of three. For Clark it meant the aortic valve did not close tightly, causing blood to leak backward into the left ventricle of the heart.
The longer crucial surgery is delayed, the more damage is done to the heart.
Clark underwent heart surgery that year to replace the valve with a porcine [pig] valve.
After that her mother, Faye Copping, now 70, was diagnosed with the same defect and had the same surgery in 2016.
Clark’s sister Wendy Wickliffe, 53, does not have BAVD but is being monitored for abnormal heart issues.
“I insisted on my family getting checked. I said, ‘You all have to get yourselves checked. We can’t ignore this. We’ve got a family line, this is hereditary.”’
An uncle also had a heart attack in his 40s while running a marathon in Japan, and survived.
Clark’s two children, 12-year-old twins Scout and Anneliese, were checked for the defect at the earliest possible age three years ago and were found to be free of it.
“We were very, very relieved. I think I cried the most that day.”
Next weekend Clark will raise money for the Heart Foundation when she runs the Jennian Homes Mother’s Day Fun Run/Walk at Hamilton Gardens.
After Clark’s heart operation she suffered from anxiety and the fear of the procedure’s success and lifespan of the valve.
“Running is actually the thing that helps keep me calm . . . . it helps me mentally as well and on top of that it’s such a good cause.”
The fun run/walk will take place at 30 locations nationwide on Mother’s Day.
For details or to buy tickets visit heartfoundation.org.nz