Getting to the heart of the matter

By Sam Leishman - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on February 1, 2025.

Herald photo by Alexandra Noad Sherri Gallant shows off some of her heart drawings and says she has been given a second chance at life after her heart attack last year.

What started as a strange sensation in her chest the morning of May 17 of last year ended in a five-day hospital stay for Lethbridge resident Sherri Gallant.

But she says it could have turned out much worse if it weren’t for the expert care she received at Chinook Regional Hospital.

Gallant, a former longtime Herald reporter and editor, told her husband she wasn’t feeling well as she was going about her normal morning routine that day, suspecting that whatever seemed to be ailing her would eventually subside on its own. What she describes as an intense feeling of dread soon swept over her, prompting her to call her husband in the midst of tears and panic.

They arrived at a packed emergency room at CRH, where Gallant’s blood pressure measured suspiciously high at the triage desk.

It was only a matter of minutes before the emergency team cleared a trauma room for Gallant. Tests indicated that her heart was functioning normally, but her doctor got on the phone with the Foothills Medical Centre cardiac team who recommended trying nitroglycerin to bring her blood pressure down before sending her to Calgary via STARS air ambulance.

“About 60 seconds later, that feeling of dread came back again,” Gallant recalls. “Things kind of started to go black. They flicked on the ECG (electrocardiogram), which I was still hooked up to. The two nurses were looking at it and they went, ‘You’re having a heart attack right now.'”

Gallant says her team immediately started a “clot buster” protocol, which comes with its own set of risks if done incorrectly. Fortunately, the protocol was successful and she was taken to Foothills Hospital in Calgary, where they found three clogged vessels on the outside of her heart that were too small for stents to be placed. Medication and lifestyle changes were recommended by her doctors instead, something that Gallant took with the utmost seriousness upon her return home.

At her three-month follow-up appointment back in Lethbridge, Gallant was told that her quick thinking to seek help at CRH was key to the recovery she’s been able to achieve.

“My heart muscle itself had sustained a little bit of damage from the heart attack,” she says. “But because I was right in (the ER) when it happened, and they were able to treat it so quickly, the damage that actually happened had healed in the three months afterwards.”

She was also told by her medical team at Foothills that the care she received at CRH could not have been better.

Gallant says she’s overwhelmed with gratitude for the comprehensive team operating the cardiac rehabilitation program in Lethbridge who helped her continue her emotional and physical recovery. She took full advantage of mental health classes, learned more about heart function and medication, completed a medically supervised exercise plan and is feeling stronger than ever. Gallant now considers this heart attack a gift that changed not only her life for the better, but deepened her relationship with her husband, five kids and 10 grandkids in a whole new way.

“Our (medical) people are so good,” she says. “The problems that we have in health care are not because of a lack of expertise of our staff. I felt so well cared for.”

Plans have been in the works for years by the Southern Alberta Cardiac Sciences Program to bring a cardiac catheterization lab to CRH, which helps doctors diagnose and treat heart conditions more effectively. The sold-out Bringing Hearts Home Gala this evening in Lethbridge will raise much-needed funds toward that goal.

While Gallant would never complain about her experience at Foothills, which is currently the closest cath lab to Lethbridge, Gallant agrees that it would be a great facility to have locally.

“It would have been lovely if I didn’t have to leave town and be in the hospital in Calgary for five days. For people to get all that kind of care in their home town would be wonderful.”

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