A Google search nearly convinced Australian political cartoonist Fiona Katauskas that she was not having a heart attack — until adding one crucial word changed what she found.
Katauskas, 56, was exercising at home one Sunday morning last year when she suddenly became breathless, dizzy and sweaty. At first, she assumed she had COVID-19 rather than a serious heart problem.
Her symptoms became more alarming when her right arm became numb. However, after searching online for heart attack symptoms, she found information that appeared to suggest arm symptoms were more commonly associated with the left side.
Instead of seeking immediate medical attention, she went back to bed.
“I thought I was tired and sleeping, but I was actually just going unconscious,” Katauskas told nine.com.au.
She later woke up with her neck and jaw locked and began to reconsider what was happening.
“Hang on a second, that is something I’ve definitely seen in heart attacks,” she recalled.
Katauskas then repeated her Google search but added one word that changed the results: “women.”
“So then I Googled ‘women + heart attacks’, and it said, ‘You can have numbness or pain in your left arm and women can have it in their right arm – women can have all these different symptoms.’”
Concerned that she could actually be experiencing a heart attack, Katauskas called an Uber to take her to hospital rather than an ambulance because she was worried she might be overreacting.
She barely made it through the emergency department before doctors rushed her into treatment.
“I said, ‘Look, you know, I’m not sure if I’m just overreacting, but this happened and this happened,’ and they went, ‘Get in a wheelchair, get in straight away.’”
She then collapsed again and was diagnosed with a heart attack.
Doctors inserted a stent the following day and discovered that a genetic cholesterol disorder had caused one of her coronary arteries to become about 90 per cent blocked.
Katauskas said she had considered herself fit and healthy. She did not smoke, was a runner and did not believe she had an obvious reason to be at high risk of heart disease.
Looking back, she said a routine medical check-up could have revealed the cholesterol problem earlier.
“I definitely would have died if I hadn’t gone to hospital,” she said.
Her experience has also highlighted concerns about how heart attack symptoms are understood, particularly among women.
The Fifth Universal Definition of Myocardial Infarction, released in 2026 by the European Society of Cardiology, American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association and World Heart Federation, incorporates sex-specific cardiac troponin thresholds and specifically addresses the risk of under-recognising myocardial injury in women.
Cardiologist Professor Hosen Kiat told nine.com.au that women can experience symptoms including breathlessness, nausea or vomiting, unusual fatigue and pain involving the jaw, neck, arms or upper back. He also stressed that chest pressure or tightness remains the most common heart attack symptom in both women and men.
Kiat warned that people should not attempt to diagnose themselves through internet searches when serious symptoms appear.
His advice was to seek emergency assistance for new or unexplained chest discomfort, particularly when it lasts or returns and is accompanied by symptoms such as breathlessness, sweating or nausea.
Katauskas’ story also serves as a reminder that heart attacks do not always resemble the dramatic scenes often shown in films, where someone suddenly clutches their chest and collapses.
For her, the warning signs were breathlessness, dizziness, sweating, loss of consciousness, a numb arm and later severe discomfort around her neck and jaw.
She now takes medication for her heart and cholesterol and has become more conscious of the importance of preventive health checks.
Her experience comes as medical experts continue to emphasise that recognising the symptoms of heart disease early can make a critical difference, particularly when symptoms do not fit the stereotypical picture of a heart attack.
