High-school teacher and poet Vindra Jain experienced a SCAD heart attack at work in September 2020 and was treated at St. Boniface Hospital. Her women’s heart care story is one of strength and self-discovery.
September 15, 2026
Vindra Jain did not have time for a heart attack.
The English language arts teacher, poet, writer, wife, and mother to four sons was focused on her busy lifestyle in September 2020. “I was doing quite a bit,” she remembered. “When I look back on it now, I ask myself, ‘How did I do all that?’ I didn’t perceive the stress in the same way my body did.”
On top of teaching full time at a Winnipeg high school, Jain was involved in several professional committees and activities related to literacy: a poetry recitation competitive group, a collaborative learning team for other teachers, the Manitoba Reading Association, a literary arts magazine for students, and more.
“Did I mention I was also working on my master’s degree in education; writing it all in poetry?” she asked.
It was the first week back to work from the pandemic break. Jain had finished her last class, and her students had left for the day.
“I started to feel unwell. Like, really nauseated,” said Jain. She cut short a phone call about a field trip but still intended on finishing some work and then driving herself home.
Fortunately, two of her school’s vice-principals were in her classroom measuring desks for social distancing. One asked her if she was all right.
“I told her, ‘I’m nauseated, I’m hot, and my arm hurts. I can’t figure out why,’” she replied. “While she’s talking to me, she turned to her colleague and just made eye contact.”
The vice-principal told Jain she thought she was having a heart attack. Jain tried to laugh it off.
“‘No, no, no. I have things to do. This is very inconvenient,’ I said. But I meant it. There was no way I could be having a heart attack, could I? I was still walking, talking, and cracking jokes. I was only 50,” she said.
Shortly after the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service arrived at the school, firefighters decided that Jain was indeed most likely having a heart attack. She wasn’t ready to agree with them, she admitted.
Then Jain’s husband, Sanjay, arrived at the school. The ambulance came and rushed her to St. Boniface Hospital while he followed in their vehicle.
SCAD heart attack confirmed
Even while in St. Boniface Hospital’s Emergency Department, Jain was still in denial. “I was too young, too fit, and didn’t fit the mold for a heart attack. Or so I thought,” she remembered.
Jain’s blood work showed high levels of troponin, a protein that signals heart muscle damage. They told her and Sanjay she had experienced a spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) heart attack. SCAD is a condition in which a small tear forms within an artery wall in the heart. It can lead to blood flow problems, heart attack, abnormalities in heart rhythm, and even death.
Her next stop was the Cardiac Catheterization (Cath) Lab for an angiogram.
“Everybody there knew exactly what they should be doing. The nurses moved with such professionalism, and their hands were so deft and so gentle. I could not be more grateful for them,” she said.
“In the Cath Lab, they let me watch the screens – I got to see the dye go through my body and through my heart. The doctor was talking to me the whole time, explaining what was going on, and what I was seeing.”
“He explained to me that blood collects inside the tear. So, the blood continues to flow through my veins and into the tear. The tear creates a bulge, which puts pressure on the heart, and that causes the heart attack,” she explained.
“I remember looking at my heart and thinking I had never seen anything so beautiful. He showed me where the tears were at the back of my heart, and how they used air to gently blow them clear and get my blood flowing properly again.”
Busy women prone to SCAD
According to studies, up to 90 per cent of cases of SCAD are in female patients. Researchers know the condition is common in otherwise healthy women at or below 50 years of age. Jain has since learned that her busy lifestyle was similar to other women’s who have also experienced SCAD.
“There’s no one thing that causes a SCAD, but women like me have commonalities, in that we have full, active lives: in our work lives, our personal lives, our spiritual lives, all full; we’re very involved,” she noted.
“The stress that my body feels, in my brain, I think of as being exhilarating. I love having a whole bunch of projects going on at the same time, having a bunch of balls in the air, and then I catch them artfully. I really like that. So, I don’t perceive it as stressful. But our bodies do, even if we’re excited about it, it’s still stress on the body.”
Writing the next chapter
“After my experience, I am in a space where I’m looking at my life and saying, ‘So, now what?’ Like, what’s my next big adventure? What will make me happy?”
Going forward, Jain knows she must pay closer attention to her health. “I listen to my body, because something else with SCAD is that, unlike somebody who suffers a traditional heart attack, we can continue to have chest pain. And so, when I’m having a pain day, which I call a SCAD day, I take it easy. I watch what’s going on with my body,” she said.
“Sanjay and I spend a lot of time together. We are looking towards our next adventure together and what life can do for us.”
“I want other people to know about SCAD, and for women who go through this to know they’re not alone. This is not an end,” she said.