Stand by Heather and Mariana

update: My sister passed on August 9th, at 1:45 pm if you could continue to share the GoFundMe to raise funds for the funeral, that would be fantastic, thank you everyone who has reached out to me.

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Hello, my name is Sheena, the little sister of Heather. Currently my sister is on life support fighting for her life for herself but most of all for her Daughter!! Heather is at INOVA Fairfax Hospital in the ICU. This whole situation has taken us by surprise and we’re at a loss for words. Never did we expect this to be how our foreseeable future would be like.

One minute it’s a regular Friday night. Heather and I were hanging out at our home. Talking and spending time together. Next I know we go from sitting and scrolling on our phones and laughing to her suddenly letting out a loud quick holler, she then drops her phone and goes limp. The next few minutes felt like a lifetime as I ran to get our mom and put her three year old into the room with my sixteen year old to wait while my mom and I were on the phone with 911. While waiting for the medics to arrive Heather stopped breathing. When the medics got there, they were able to get her heart beating again and stabilize her enough to be transported to the hospital. Once at the hospital they found that she had unfortunately had a heart attack at the young age of 44.

We have since learned that her heart function is severely decreased with a Heart Function percentage of 10%....

The doctors state this was likely brought on by a weak heart from being in labor too long when delivering her daughter. Her daughter is her Miracle Baby that she was blessed with at 41 after many years of struggling to conceive and become a mom.

At INOVA she has an optimistic doctor that thinks she will be able to come off of the ventilator and breath on her own, but we still are not out of the woods yet. We have to wait 24 to 72 hours to find out if there is brain activity. We are hoping and praying that Heather will make it through this because Heather is a FIGHTER. She will fighter for her daughter to be reunited with her Mommy!!!

Please if you can to donate any amount to help support and/or share this GO Fund Me so that we can build a fund to support Heather and Mariana WHEN she pulls through; because SHE WILL & because she is a FIGHTER and Mariana needs her Mommy to rest for a bit and heal without worrying about financial stress.