August 14, 2026
When Mabel Garcea had her first heart attack in October 2017, nothing in her test results pointed to a clear cause.
As a business owner, wife, and mother, Garcea was always on the go. Between helping run the family business, working as an interior designer, and caring for her family, she didn’t think she was at risk for heart disease.
“I was always go, go, go,” she said. “I wasn’t taking time for myself.”
She went to a Winnipeg hospital and was taken for an angiogram test. The results did not show any blockage or obvious explanation for what had happened.
“Everything looked normal, but I wasn’t feeling good,” Garcea said. “I kept saying, ‘Something is wrong.’”
Although the immediate danger had passed, the lack of answers left her still searching for an explanation.
Over the following year, she continued to go back to her care team as her symptoms persisted. Because her results appeared normal, she was told there was no issue.
“I would leave feeling like maybe it was something else,” Garcea remembered.
Then she had a second heart attack in October 2018. A third followed in October 2019.
Looking back, Garcea says one of the biggest lessons she learned was that heart attacks in women do not always look the way people expect.
“I want women to understand,” Garcea said. “I didn’t know I was having a heart attack.”
Her symptoms were not what she expected. Instead of chest pain, she felt pain in her back. She waited two days before going to the hospital, thinking it might be related to her lungs.
“I thought it was something else completely,” Garcea said.
Over time, she even realized that each of her heart attacks had felt different.
Her experience isn’t unique. Heart disease in women often presents differently than it does in men, and standard testing does not always capture those differences.
After her third heart attack, Garcea’s doctor referred her to a cardiologist at St. Boniface Hospital who recognized what might be happening.
She was told she likely had MINOCA (myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries), a rare type of heart attack that occurs without a major blockage in the arteries. The condition is more common in women and can be difficult to detect with standard testing.
At that point, Garcea was referred for further specialized testing available only at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
After returning home, Garcea continued her care through St. Boniface Hospital, where her care team helps her manage her condition.
Today, she says the experience changed how she understands her health.
A new path for women
Today, nearly a decade after her first heart attack, Garcea is sharing her story as Manitoba prepares to open its first Women’s Heart Care Clinic and Research at St. Boniface Hospital. The Clinic aims to bring together specialized expertise and testing, so women don’t need to leave the province for answers.
For Garcea, speaking about her experience is about awareness.
“There was nothing on my charts,” Garcea explained. “People didn’t believe me initially because everything looked fine. But I knew I wasn’t myself.”
She also learned to pay closer attention to her body and slow down when something felt off. Over time, she found tools like mindfulness and stress management that helped her regain confidence in managing her health.
She sees the new Clinic at the Hospital as something that will help others avoid the same uncertainty she went through.
“This Clinic isn’t for me,” Garcea said. “I already went through it. This is for the women who will come after me.”
For women across Manitoba, the new Clinic represents earlier answers, more specialized care, and the hope that fewer of them will spend years searching for a diagnosis.