Doctors discovered heart blockage that could have proved fatal in a matter of months
By Julie Hays
Published: Oct. 6, 2023 at 3:51 PM CDT
WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Hall of Fame Coach Kim Mulkey is opening up in her first television interview since accidentally discovering heart blockage that doctors say could have taken her life in only months.
Mulkey appeared on KWTX Friday to talk about undergoing a procedure in June in which two stents were placed in her left anterior descending coronary artery.
Mulkey’s artery was about 95-to-99 percent blocked, but she never experienced a single symptom.
“I found it by accident,” Mulkey told KWTX.
The shocking discovery started with Mulkey’s finger. The tip of her middle finger had been tingling but it wasn’t anything she was worried much about.
The animated coach even wondered if she’d hurt it by slamming it on a clipboard while coaching.
With some downtime on her hands after winning a national championship at LSU in April, Mulkey made an appointment in May.
“I was sitting at home, bored, after the season and I just said, ‘you know, I think this tip of my finger may have carpal tunnel. I’m going to call a friend and go check it out.’”
The tingling turned out to be mild carpal tunnel syndrome but while Mulkey was at the hospital, she asked if they could do an MRI on her neck to check the healing of spinal fusion surgery she’d undergone in Waco in 2018.
“I said on the way out the door, ‘five years ago I had some disc surgery in Waco, check this scar and make sure this scar and make sure all the screws and the nuts and bolts are in place.”
Mulkey’s imaging of her neck looked perfect, but it’s what the pictures accidentally captured of her carotid arteries that sounded the alarm.
“The radiologist calls and tells me, ‘we accidentally took a scan of your carotid arteries,” Mulkey said, “And there’s plaque build up there.”
That discovery led Mulkey to cardiologist, Dr. Carl Luikart, a team doctor at LSU.
WATCH: Part 2 of Coach Kim Mulkey’s exclusive interview with Julie Hays
Dr. Luikart was able to determine her plaque build up wasn’t bad and could be handled with cholesterol medication.
“But while I was there, he said, ‘hey wait. I want to check you out from head to toe,’” Mulkey said.
The checkup included a scheduled stress echo cardiogram where Mulkey walked on the treadmill for about 15-minutes.
The results were not good.
“It showed half of her heart muscle in jeopardy of not getting enough blood,” Luikart said.
Mulkey waited three weeks for the procedure as she was leaving to take her team to the White House, plus accept the Winged Foot Award in New York City.
She’d also planned a family vacation in Florida. With Kim having no symptoms, the decision was made to let her carry on with her busy schedule while giving her medication to take in case she experienced any problems.
The last week of June, the Hall of Fame coach underwent the stint procedure through her wrists in which two stents were inserted to open up the blood flow.
Mulkey was awake and called it “uneventful” but what doctors discovered was shocking.
Mulkey’s artery was almost entirely blocked, meaning she was likely months away from a heart attack that Luikart said could have “absolutely” killed her.
“I set up and said, ‘does that mean I was going to have a heart attack’ and they said, ‘yes.’”
“I was just like, ‘you got to be kidding me?’”
Mulkey says she’s speaking out about her ordeal because she never expected she’d be affected by the number one killer of women.
She’s 61 years old, exercises daily and is a former elite athlete, but Mulkey says she does have a history of heart disease in her family.
“I do have a little history with my mother, who has hardening of the arteries throughout her body, but I never associated myself with my mother’s issues because I was always an athlete, always in shape. I don’t look like a heart patient. I don’t look like I have stents. I like to eat, but I exercise.”
Mulkey hopes sharing her story will encourage all women 50 and older to see their doctors and ask for a stress test whether they have symptoms or not.
“It’s a silent killer in women, a lot,” Mulkey said. “My reason for sharing anything like this is if you’re over 50, go get checked out. What does it hurt?”
While Mulkey hasn’t noticed a difference in how she feels since she was asymptomatic, she is taking medication, and her doctor has recommended tightening her diet and exercising more.
She says she’s thankful she listened to her body and hopes other women and men will heed the warning to be proactive when it comes to heart health.
“Don’t wait for a symptom. If the best news is you’re good to go, then walk out. If the worst news is we got some problems. Fix it. You got time. Just take the time to go do it,” Mulkey said.
“It could save your life. I know it saved mine.”
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