MILWAUKEE — The “She’s Happy Treats” suite in the Eric B. Brown Enterprise building in Milwaukee is Shemeka Campbell’s little corner of heaven.
“It’s a small, gourmet dessert suite,” said Campbell.
Making sweet treats such as chocolate-covered strawberries turned into more than just a hobby for Campbell.
“It was actually therapy for me at one point, as well as being able to supplement my income up when I had to take work off to medical issues,” said Campbell.
Campbell has three different heart conditions. It started in 2012, when she was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia, which causes an irregular and rapid heartbeat.
“We did a procedure called an ablation,” said Campbell. “A heart ablation. They burnt the tissue from where the fast rhythms were coming from.”
She learned that she also had dilated cardiomyopathy, leaving her heart ejection fraction under 35%.
The American Heart Association said a normal fraction is 55% to 70%.
Campbell said this is what ultimately lead to her being diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2016.
“Some of the symptoms I ignored in regard to that was, I had a slight cough,” said Campbell. “I had to use several pillows to prop my head up when I slept. I had a lot of fluid retention.”
She had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), placed inside her heart in 2018.
“I didn’t want it because I didn’t want a foreign object inside my body,” said Campbell. “After the passing of my sister, something clicked for me.”
In 2020, Campbell was hospitalized with COVID for a month. She was intubated and on a ventilator. During this time, she went into renal failure and was on hemodialysis.
“I was able to be discharged off of dialysis,” said Campbell. “In that same year, 2021, my grandmother passed. My father passed. My body had endured the stress from COVID and it was trying to get back into its regular rhythm. Then in June of 2021, I went into V-fib [ventricular fibrillati] where my heart stopped beating. That device that I didn’t want to get it was now inside of me. It shocked my heart back into the regular rhythm.”
Campbell said her mission now is to bring awareness the importance of heart health, especially for Black women.
“I had that stereotype that heart disease only happens to old people,” said Campbell. “Only old people only have heart attacks, mostly men. In actuality, a woman, being a Black woman, I’m more at risk than a Caucasian woman.”
Ascension Wisconsin cardiologist Dr. Sasanka Jayasuriya said 60% of Black women over the age of 40 have high blood pressure.
“African American women generally have a disadvantage from heart disease,” said Jayasuriya. “The main reason is that their blood pressure is so hard to control. There’s a specific gene that is mostly seen in African Americans that pushes their blood pressure way higher than the normal population.”
She recommended following a healthy lifestyle. That includes routine checkups with doctors and being aware of your body.
That’s something Campbell lives by.
“It’s important for me to really help other people understand the risk they’re at because there might be something you’re able to do to change your situation so it doesn’t go as far as my situation was,” said Campbell.
Campbell said the past 12 years have been a journey not only about living a life with heart disease, but also learning how resilient and strong she is.