Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center

Amy Maughan

Amy Maughan:
Caring for a Caregiver

Meet Amy Maughan, a committed social worker with the Los Angeles County Department of Child and Family Services, a single mother of four, and a woman whose lupus condition increases her risk of heart disease.

In 2008, Amy noticed some troubling symptoms—chest pain and shortness of breath—that she would rather have ignored. But Daniel Wallace, MD, her Cedars-Sinai rheumatologist, immediately referred her to the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center. It was a decision that likely saved Amy’s life.

Tests showed that lupus-related microvascular coronary dysfunction had damaged her heart muscle. Fortunately, her medical team, led by C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD, arrested the damage and stabilized her heart. Two years later, Drs. Bairey Merz and Wallace still confer regularly to discuss treatment options and to monitor Amy’s progress.

“What you get at the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center is a continuity of hypervigilant care from everyone on the staff—and I emphasize everyone,” Amy says. “Whenever I call the Center, they instantly recognize my voice and say ‘Hi, Amy! How are you feeling today?’ I love that.”

With her mended heart, Amy is back at the core of her family’s life—and the lives of countless other Los Angeles-area children.

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