ABOUT THE BOOK

Sonata for a Damaged Heart is one Black woman’s story of a near-death experience following her second pregnancy—and the racial disparities in the healthcare industry that contributed to it. 

Cardiovascular disease is the #1 cause of maternal mortality in the United States, accounting for over one-third of maternal deaths, with Black women having among the highest maternal mortality rates. Why is childbirth such a risky condition for U.S. women’s health, especially for Black women—and what can be done about it? 

Wakisha (Kisha) Stewart’s memoir is both a moving, lyrically told story of a decade-long struggle to survive a near-fatal heart attack with dignity and a clarion call for community-wide mobilization to guarantee health care equity.

Realizing that if she hadn’t insisted on being seen by a doctor, and if one nurse hadn’t grasped how serious her symptoms were, she would “have been counted among the scores of women who’d died of SCAD” the year of her attack. Kisha becomes determined to make a difference with the second chance at life she’d been given by telling her story and advocating for change. 

“During my years of struggle with trauma, research became my closest ally, a guiding light that helped me find a way out of despair,” Kisha writes. Her research revealed “women experiencing a cardiac event wait 20-30% longer than men to go to the hospital and 30% longer to be treated. This was especially true for women of color, who were less likely to be examined thoroughly or admitted to the hospital.”

Sonata for a Damaged Heart recounts the complicated professional and emotional journey that Kisha takes from heart failure to being selected in 2022 by the American Heart Association (AHA) as 1 of 12 spokeswomen advocating for women’s heart health in its national education campaign, Reclaim Your Rhythm.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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. 

TALKING POINTS

• Cardiovascular disease as the #1 cause of maternal mortality in the United States, accounting for over one-third of maternal deaths 
• Kisha as a women’s heart health expert and advocate: 2022 AHA spokesperson, registered nurse, and heart attack survivor
• The symptoms of a heart attack/heart failure in women and what women should be doing to prevent them 
• What is SCAD, what are its risk factors and symptoms (Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection) 
• The social injustice of the healthcare system; racial and gender disparities and what needs to be done to fix them 
• Why you need to be your own health advocate 
• How women handle stressful situations and adversity (not only surviving a heart attack while caring for a baby and kids, but a Florida hurricane sent Kisha to Maui, where she endured the Lahaina wildfire)