A mom's sudden pain was a deadly heart condition. An ultrasound on an iPhone helped save her life.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

HEALTHWATCH
A mom's sudden pain was a deadly heart condition. An ultrasound on an iPhone helped save her life.

By Kerry Breen
Edited By Stephen Smith
Updated on: March 15, 2025 / 8:00 AM EDT / CBS News

Sara Adair knows the symptoms of aortic dissections. The hospital analyst's father and sister each experienced the dangerous cardiac condition, when the inner lining of the body's main artery tears and causes the aorta to come apart.

Aortic dissections can be deadly, and are hard to diagnose. Both Adair's father and sister survived, but after her sister's aortic dissection at the age of 49, Adair was determined to learn why it had happened. She, her father and her sister were diagnosed with Loeys-Dietz syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects the body's connective tissues.

Adair, a mother of two, learned the symptoms, saw a cardiologist and had regular scans of her aorta. There were no warning signs. On July 22, 2024, she spent the afternoon attending sports tournaments and a pool party with her kids. It was just another day in a "super busy weekend," she told CBS News, and she felt "completely normal." When they finally got home at 9 p.m., she sat down to unwind.

"All of a sudden my chest started to hurt. It felt fine all day, completely normal, then just all of a sudden this crushing, horrible, chest pain I'd never felt before," Adair said. "It was long enough for me to think 'Oh, is this really what I think it is?'"

{snip}

[Deuxcents]

1. Amazing. I wish the article spoke more about the device and how that works.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. My father's experience with a dissected aorta.

My father was 92 and a retired cardiologist, so you'd imagine he knew something about this condition.

He shouldn't have been driving b/c of the series of MVAs he had. One day, he rear-ended a van at a gas station, hitting his chest on the steering column (no air-bags). He refused medical attention and an ambulance. He took a taxi home and didn't tell me or my siblings about the accident.

B/c he didn't follow up with a doctor's visit, he was unaware that he had a partially dissected aorta, and he was having a slow bleed into his chest.

One week later, he experienced a pronounced backache. Instead of visiting a doctor, he chose to get a massage, which was the last thing he should have done. Let's say it speeded up the evitable and he suffered a heart attack hours later, and he died.

My point: even a cardiologist misdiagnosed a fatal backache. The symptoms may be more nuanced than a crushing pain in your chest.

[sabbat hunter]

3. A doctor's

worst patient is themselves.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Tell me about it!

When he died, I found ca. 40 prescriptions that he prescribed to himself.

[sabbat hunter]

5. How is that

even legal?

[no_hypocrisy]

6. It wasn't. Dad was a retired physician with extra squib sheets.

None of his treating physicians knew Dad was writing prescriptions for himself.