Hey everyone! My name is Cassandra Hewitt and on August 27, 2024, I had an LVAD heart procedure done. I am on the road to recovery, but the medical expenses are not always easy to cover after such a massive procedure. I just wanted to share my story and experiences with heart disease. In early 2020 I started having trouble walking any distance without feeling like I couldn’t breathe. Through many doctor visits and hospital visits, lots of medical tests such as echocardiogram, heart catheterizations, genetic testing we found out that I have a genetic heart condition known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The biggest problem they found that my ejection fraction was at first about 30-35%. Normal EF is at least 50 or above. Probably about 2yrs into the diagnosis, they decided I needed a defibrillator just in case my heart stopped or started having bad rhythms. Almost exactly 1yr later while sitting at my desk at work, I had a Vtach rhythm and my defibrillator did its job, it paced me back and then I spent a week in the hospital. They tried to use heart medications to fix my heart but have been unsuccessful so I got a referral to Oschner’s and they told me that my only option was heart transplant. I am too sick for a heart transplant so we needed another option. My heart doctor at Hattiesburg clinic referred my to the heart failure clinic in Jackson. After multiple visits with Dr. Long, he decided he needed to perform another heart cath to get an updated EF and see for himself the condition of my heart and how much fluid I was holding. After the heart cath, he said it was worse than he thought and that my EF had dropped to 10%. He informed me that he couldn’t send me home like that so he prescribed a milrinone pump. They placed a PICC line in my right arm to drop the milrinone medication directly into my heart. The milrinone made me feel so much better but it is not good to stay on it for a long period of time so we knew we needed another solution pretty quickly. He talked to other specialists and doctors and decided that I needed an LVAD. Whether it's through donations or prayers, please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.