By LYNN ASCRIZZI

Staff Writer

Beverly Gay of Norridgewock is alive today, because she reached for her cell phone at the first vague signs of her heart attack.

And, her immediate family took her complaints seriously and responded to her call within precious minutes.

Gay's story dramatically illustrates how the number-one killer of women -- heart disease -- can stalk on stealthy feet when it comes to women's unique heart-attack symptoms.

"I was feeling weird. I don't know how to explain it," Gay said, of the feelings that came over her one morning, five years ago, at age 62.

The day started normally enough, with her cooking up a bacon-and-eggs breakfast for her husband, Daniel, recently home from the hospital after a hip replacement.

Then, she got into the car to head to Augusta, on an errand.

"I was feeling fine. I got down to the Skowhegan Drive-In (on Route 201), and all of a sudden, I wasn't feeling well," she said.

She pulled to the side of the road.

"I had a funny feeling all over me . . . disoriented. I sat there a few minutes, felt a little better and started driving down the road."

A few minutes later, she turned the car around and headed home.

"I realized, no, I can't do this . . . I had no pain, whatsoever."

She pulled over for the second time at the bottom of Beech Hill Road, near their home.

"I called my husband on the cell phone. I told him, I think it's my heart . . .The cell phone is what saved me," she said.

Right after the call, "I felt like I was going to pass out," she said. "My head felt heavy, my left arm started tingling, and I felt a little nauseous."

Her husband called 911. He also called their daughter, Cindy Allen, who lives next door. Allen, a receptionist for Northeast Cardiology in Waterville, alerted her husband Robert. They headed out in their car to meet Gay.

By this time, Gay was slumped over the wheel, semi-conscious.

"Cars passed, but no one stopped. I looked up and saw my daughter and her husband coming. My daughter said: 'Oh my God, Robert, it's her heart!' "

Only a few miles from Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan, Cindy Allen decided to drive her mother, in her mother's car, straight to the hospital. Her husband drove ahead to alert emergency-room staff. Just as Allen and her mom arrived at the hospital, the ambulance responding to the call from Gay's husband was pulling away.

Medical experts strongly advise that people with heart attack symptoms call 911 and wait for an ambulance. But, in this case, a doctor at Redington told the Allens that their action saved Gay's life.

"The doctor told them, if the kids hadn't brought me in, I wouldn't have made it," Gay said. She was only minutes from death.

At Redington, tests confirmed her heart attack. She was sent to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where she underwent quadruple bypass and heart-valve surgery.

In hindsight, Gay recognized other, silent warning signs.

For one, she had a family history of heart disease. Her sister, Grace, died at age 58 of a heart attack. Their mother died, at age 83, of a heart condition.

Other silent risk factors: She was 50 pounds overweight and had unexplained fatigue.

"Before this happened, I'd get out of bed in the morning, and by 10 a.m., wanted to go to bed. I'd sleep a couple of hours, get up and still be tired, go back and lay down again," she said.

Two days before her heart attack, she shoveled snow around her vehicle.

"I told my husband I was totally exhausted. I never really connected that to the heart," Gay said.

Lynn Ascrizzi -- 621-5731

lascrizzi@centralmaine.com