THIRD TIMES A CHARM

Waking up Saturday morning, August first of 2021, Tiana Jones, 26, had the call she had been waiting five years for.

Marking Tiana’s first discovery of a diagnosed heart disease, it was cardiomyopathy that began her entire life changing journey. During her sophomore year of high school, she had to pause her life from the things she had loved;

her passion and dedication to the Mead High School dance team in Spokane, Washington being one. Knowing that she would eventually need a heart transplant within 10 - 15 years, though her health deteriorated quicker than the doctors had suspected. On May 4th of 2016 she was quickly admitted into the CICU waiting 12 days there for a heart transplant that ended up not working out. She had a dry run (getting a call for a transplant and leaving the hospital without a transplant). 40 days later the doctors decided an LVAD was the best and only option for her to live her life as the active adult she is and has always been.

15 hours into her LVAD surgery and 3 months of recovery, she was able to feel more normal than ever.

This LVAD has given her 5 extra years of life, though there came many hard ships living with it. No swimming, no traveling (she had been relisted into the heart transplant list that encourages you to stay close to your hospital), no heart beat, relying on a 5 lb machine that was attached to either her shoulder or hip 24/7, always changing out the batteries to her LVAD and making sure a charger was near by to charge the drained batteries, carrying extra fully charged batteries on top of heavy emergency equipment that could not leave her side carried in a backpack at all times. There is no room for error when one is attached to an electrical machine that is helping a weakened life line- in this case; a failing heart.

Tiana’s cardiomyopathy lead her to heart failure and this machine was prolonging her life, not curing it. Her health was still slowly declining and her heart was having a more difficult time pumping, so her doctors decided to insert a PICC line where a medication called Milrinone to help treat her heart failure. This lead her to having two machines to carry around and two opened wounds to take care of.

Fast forward to July 30th of 2021, there was a call to her second chance of a new heart! She was sure of it this time. “This has to be the one!” It was finally prepping time in the CICU and just as soon as she had a second PICC line inserted the surgeon came in with their head hanging low. This was enough to know this was a second dry run.

With her hopes high and refusing to have her second PICC line extracted, she manifested that they would call her the next day. And that is exactly what happened.

This time she had priority over this heart. No dry run, no LVAD, no PICC line with Milrinone…

Tiana Jones HAS a heart beat!! Third time’s a charm! There will be a long road to recovery ahead of her, though her heart team, her family, and she has been waiting and fighting for this very moment!

Tiana can walk without a machine for the first time in six years. She can shower. She doesn't have to charge batteries to stay alive. She can swim. She can do so many things that many of us take for granted. Tiana has a year of recovery ahead of her, and is unable to work during her recovery. Her business which she opened despite the odds is currently closed. Tiana needs our help to financially survive while she rests and let's her new heart sync with her body, mind and soul. Anything you are willing and able to bless Tiana with will help her journey of recovery. Thank you for all the support and she can't wait to continue sharing her recovery with each of you!