You’re a fit 31 year-old woman who recently gave birth to a healthy son. While at dinner with friends, you suddenly feel disorientation, nausea, and unbearable pain. As a registered nurse, you know something is very wrong. What’s first dismissed as a postpartum panic attack turns out to be heart failure and a near-fatal heart attack—an emergency condition called SCAD, Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection. During your recovery—which is as much mental and emotional as it is physical—you learn that cardiovascular disease is the #1 cause of maternal mortality in the U.S., accounting for over 1/3 of maternal deaths, with Black women having among the highest maternal mortality rates. How did you not know this before? And what can be done about it?
Sonata for a Damaged Heart recounts the complicated journey that Wakisha (Kisha) Stewart takes from heart failure to being selected in 2022 by the American Heart Association as 1 of 12 spokeswomen advocating for women’s heart health in its national education campaign, Reclaim Your Rhythm.
Find more information on Kisha and her book here and here. Digital review copies can be accessed via NetGalley or sent by email; Print review copies are available by request. A Dropbox link of press material is available here.
Let me know what you need to connect you with Kisha’s message as a women’s heart health advocate, 2022 AHA spokesperson, registered nurse, and heart attack survivor.
The start of the year is full of timely tie-ins for this vital topic:
JANUARY
- New Year, New You
FEBRUARY
- American Heart Month
- Black History Month
- National African American Read-In
- Women’s Heart Week - 1-7
- National Women’s Heart Day (National Wear Red Day) - 2
MARCH
- Women’s Month
- International Women’s Week - 2-5
- National Write Your Story Day - 14
Wakisha (Kisha) Stewart is a wife, mother of three, nurse, heart attack survivor, and a national advocate for heart health dedicated to improving the quality of cardiovascular health care for everyone. Since her heart attack in 2011 at age 31, she has conducted extensive research about the specific health risks that women, particularly Black women, face. A dynamic, nationally recognized speaker on ways to improve heart health through lifestyle changes and a fierce advocate for systemic changes in the health care system to guarantee equity and social justice for all, Kisha, a nurse with a unique perspective and survivor on a mission, was a national spokeswoman chosen in 2022 by the American Heart Association (AHA) to educate the public about the risks of cardiovascular disease.
