Support Samantha's Fight Against Heart Failure

This is Samantha, she is still young and has the most beautiful son, and caring life partner Joe at home with her. 

 During giving birth to her one and only child no one could have guessed the complications that would have come with it. During labor Samantha’s blood pressure bottomed out making her unconscious and unaware of what was happening around her. She came to shortly after and that would have to be the start of a serious illness she will struggle to recover from. 

 Samantha was diagnosed with Covid pneumonia shortly after the birth of her son, but she knew that wasn’t it. It had to be something else so she persisted with the doctors telling them something worse was happening. Weeks had gone by before a doctor decided on a chest x-ray to give her some peace of mind. 

 Not even 10 mins later after leaving the hospital they called her to come back immediately. Samantha was right, it was not just Covid, it was Heart Failure and pretty far advanced. 

It took many more weeks staying in the hospital to come up with a plan to slow down the progression of what the hospital has called Cardiomyopathy. It has been challenging as doctors have never seen this before as Samantha is the first person to have cardiomyopathy, covid and covid pneumonia at the same time which cause irreversible damage to her heart. 

 This heart disease, comes with many different symptoms such as, pain in the chest, dizziness, extreme fatigue, or loss of appetite, abnormal heart rhythm, fast heart rate, loss of consciousness, blood clots, bloating or fluid in the abdomen, also coughing, fever, shortness of breath, swelling in extremities, depression, anxiety, nausea, brain fog, hard to recall things, loss of strength, other organs begin to shut down, limited physical activities, and pain in limits, low immune symptoms, and/or death. She is unable to work and be around the general public due to the possibility of catching a virus or worse. 

 Samantha has come across many of these symptoms. From surgery for two different pacemakers to crying out in pain, sleepless nights, wanting to give up because she couldn’t breathe at sometime from fluid overload or get up on her own. She’s had many biopsies of her heart. They even had a central line put in a few different times for 24/7 IV medication to help with the symptoms. Unfortunately, that came with some issues as well, causing Samantha to go into septic shock and also contract infections in her line a few times. Samantha has quite literally put her blood sweat and tears into this. It’s so hard to see her in this much pain and suffering. 

 This is considered end-stage/stage D heart failure, also known as terminal heart failure, is the most severe stage, with no cure. Just a possibility to prolong life. During this time, a person experiences symptoms, even while at rest. The life expectancy for individuals with end stage heart failure that receives a heart transplant there are still so many risks and the longer you have a new heart the percentage of survival rate goes down every year, but it could also give you more time and live a better life.

   

From the time of diagnosis most people don't survive more than a year without transplant. Samantha has beat the expectancy by hanging on longer. She says “I did it for her son, family, and friends. I want what little time I have to enjoy life and doing things I’ve never done before. I don’t want to go out with my son to see me months at a time in a hospital bed. I will show him that mama is strong, mama followed her dreams, mama wanted more time with baby with no care in the world.” 

 To make this happen Samantha will need a lot more help. We hope you will donate to take some of the burden off of the whole family while they help and take turns being full time caregiving and other unbelievable tasks to help Samantha stand up on her own two feet and walk across the house to pick up her baby again, and again, and again. Unfortunately, the state cannot help Samantha with all of her needs. Which includes physical and mental therapy. Someone to cook her healthy meals and help around the house and so much more. Also helping her son for his future if something happens to Samantha. 

 If Samantha has a transplant, there will be after care, therapies, trips to the hospital, testing, and screening for everything. She would still need to do this almost every week. Because Samantha is still young, she will need several transplants in her lifetime. Most people do not know that a transplanted organ may only last a person 10 to 15 years before it has to be replaced. We are also hoping to get Samantha a service animal to help her feel more safe on her own and help her become more independent in her daily life and also set up her son for a future that may not have a mama in it. To also help Samantha before and after her fight and/or recovery.