Emily Weir opened up about her real life health concerns after her character Mackenzie Booth suffered a second heart attack.
Last week on Home and Away, Mackenzie discharged herself from hospital following her first heart attack. She was diagnosed with SCAD (spontaneous coronary artery dissection) but was insistent on leaving.
After returning from hospital, Mackenzie clutched her chest in pain and begged Tane (Ethan Browne) to call an ambulance. During Monday’s episode (February 26) of the Channel 5 soap, Mackenzie was tended to by paramedics at home and was surprised to learn that she’s completely fine.
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They explained that what she thought was a heart attack must have just been anxiety. While the ambulance suggested she return to hospital, Mackenzie was certain she overreacted and headed to bed instead.
(Image: Channel 5)
Later on, Xander (Luke Van Os) and Mali (Kyle Shilling) found her unconscious as Xander immediately began chest compressions. After learning about the storyline, Emily admitted it was “near home” for her as she’s struggled with heart issues in the past.
“I’ve had some heart health concerns in the past, so it was kind of really near to home for me to be able to play a young woman who’s got some heart concerns,” she said. In the past, the actress has lived with an irregular heartbeat.
(Image: WireImage)
She explained: “I had basically an arrhythmia and I had some ventricular ectopics, which is kind of a skipping of the heartbeat, which was really scary at the time.” Although Emily’s health concerns were mostly caused by stress, her family has a history of heart issues and she therefore has regular check ups to keep on top of her health.
Emily did some research on SCAD and who it affects, explaining many young people aren’t aware it could happen to them. The soap star said: “In women especially, it doesn’t present in the typical way of a tight chest.
(Image: Channel 5)
“It can be anything from like a sore shoulder, sore jaw, feeling really fatigued. And it’s really hard to differentiate because we live in a society where we’re always fatigued, we’re always pretty tired, we work a lot.”
After Mackenzie suffers a second scare, she becomes overly protective about her health to the point where it becomes obsessive. “Which is what happens to people when you have a health scare, it’s the mental and emotional effects of that, you kind of lose a lot of trust with your own body and so you become hyper-aware and, at times, almost paranoid,” Emily said.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
