Support Samantha’s Journey to Healing

Hello everyone, thank you for taking the time to read my story, as it’s long but I feel everything is necessary so you understand what I am going through. My name is Samantha, I’m 37 years old, mother of 1 and up until recently had a good bill of health. I have been in CVPH since 5/10/2025. That night I came into the ER I had a very high fever and was feeling very out it. I was in the ER maybe 5 minutes before a doctor listened to my heart and told me I had a murmur and that I would be admitted. After a bunch of testing, we learned I had Endocarditis, which is an infection of the heart's inner lining, usually involving the heart valves.

Endocarditis usually occurs when germs from elsewhere in the body travel through to your heart. We started battling it with antibiotics and I started to feel better after a couple of days. We ran a lot of tests and took a lot of blood cultures.. My blood cultures started coming back negative. I thought everything was gonna be OK. Doctors ordered an echocardiogram to look at my heart to see what the damage was like and saw that I have a vegetation in my heart valve and my heart valve is not functioning properly. Everybody’s heart valves open and close to create proper blood flow throughout your body. My aortic heart valve is stiff and not functioning properly, causing a backflow of blood. Heart valve failure has 3 levels to describe the condition: mild, moderate, and severe. Unlucky for me, I am in severe. This was devastating to me, as I learned heart valve replacement surgery was the only way to fix this. A bunch more tests and I’m starting to feel so much better, I had hope I would be able to live normally and possibly may not even need the surgery. I was so hopeful. Things took a turn a few days ago, I had blurred vision, severe dizziness in my right eye, and my headache came back which is on the right side of my head. The doctor ordered an MRI and found abnormalities in my brain. Basically, what this means is the formation of infectious emboli that break off from the heart and travel to the brain, causing serious neurological complications. These complications can include stroke, brain abscess, intracranial hemorrhage, and meningitis. I am devastated to hear these results and the doctors are certain heart valve replacement surgery is imminent. I realize the feeling better I was feeling was only temporary as I still do not feel even close to 100%. On Tuesday, May 27th, I will be getting transferred to University of Vermont Hospital, to start the journey towards getting my heart valve replaced. I am scared and nervous about it all, but on top of all these health concerns, real life is still happening around me. I cannot work obviously and will be out of work for a very long time as this is a very serious surgery that will require up to a year of recovery. We just moved into a new apartment a few months ago, and I will need help financially to not only cover my bills, but to help my family with travel expenses to support me during this difficult time in my life, as I will need them by my side to help me get through this. If you’ve made it this far I just want to say thank you; and anyone who knows me knows that I have the hardest time asking for help; I am very independent and always taken care of myself and my family on my own. It’s so hard for me to even make this: I’m not sure how long I will leave it up lol. Any amount of help anyone can give is a blessing and I promise to pay it forward. Thank you for supporting my family and I during this time.