Barbara Fleeman’s Story

Barbara Fleeman

WomenHeart Champion; Support Group Facilitator

Barbara grew up in Atlanta and moved back 6 years ago after spending 40 years building a successful career in entertainment consumer marketing/promotion.  She was always very active in her personal and professional life.  In 2013 she was diagnosed with severe pericarditis.  Over the following 18 months. She continued to experience increasingly difficult episodes of shortness of breath, chest pain, fatigue, nausea, dizziness, and chest pressure.  She went to see several doctors and was told that there was nothing wrong with her heart, even though she told them “My heart hurts”.  She continued to become sicker.  After a long course of indecision by medical professionals, she found help and a correct diagnosis of INOCA and Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction at the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

In 2015 she was invited to attend the WomenHeart Science and Leadership Symposium at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.  After an intensive five-day event, she was trained to become a WomenHeart Champion.  Barbara continues to share her experience with women to help educate them to the unique signs & symptoms of women’s heart disease, as well as, provide patient advocate support to women who are living with or at risk of heart disease.