I'm 21, and I have end-stage heart failure. This is what it's like
The TikTok algorithm is a mystery that influencers around the world try their best to understand. Chantal Pelletier unknowingly cracked the code to the platform in January 2025 with a 27 second video documenting her life with end-stage heart failure.
In a video that has earned more than 5 million views on TikTok and Instagram combined, the Grand Falls, N.B native demonstrated how she changes power sources for her left ventricular assist device (LVAD), which is implanted in her chest and helps pump blood from her left ventricle to the rest of her body. The upbeat music and the hint of a smile on her face put the viewer at ease, but the portable machine is all that's keeping the now 21-year-old alive while she waits for a new heart.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Contact a qualified medical professional before engaging in any physical activity, or making any changes to your diet, medication or lifestyle.
A quick scroll through Pelletier's social media paints a picture of what her day-to-day was like before her life-changing diagnosis. In the summer of 2024, she was working 65 hours a week as a personal support worker in a nursing home and in a grocery store bakery ahead of her third year at St. Thomas University in Fredericton. Her life was busy, but full of friends, family and her boyfriend of two years.
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'I felt tired a lot…but I was working two jobs,' Pelletier said in an interview with Yahoo Canada. 'I noticed throughout the summer that it was becoming harder to climb the stairs to my apartment.'
Pelletier thought her thyroid issues or anemia was the reason she was feeling so tired. In September 2024, she began feeling sick and visited a hospital in her hometown. She was diagnosed with a lung infection and received antibiotics, but after two weeks of taking the medication her symptoms weren't improving. She was having trouble keeping food down.
Pelletier's mother, Roseann, couldn't shake the feeling that whatever was plaguing her daughter wasn't a lung infection. Doctors in Grand Falls referred Pelletier to a larger hospital in Edmundston, where physicians speculated her gallbladder was the cause of her symptoms — so ordered a gall bladder removal.
'Usually the turnaround time after having your gallbladder removed is pretty quick,' Pelletier said. 'However, for me, I still couldn't keep food down. I was sick…I was getting headaches four days after surgery.' It wasn't until she was transferred into intensive care where an echocardiogram revealed that Pelletier was in heart failure.
'My heart was the size of a football,' she said.
Pelletier was air lifted to Quebec City, where tests confirmed that she had dilated cardiomyopathy; a form of heart disease in which the muscles in the heart become so enlarged they were no longer pumping blood to the rest of the body.
My heart was the size of a footballChantal Pelletier
Dilated cardiomyopathy impacts one out of 250 people in Canada. Although common in people under 50, it can also impact infants and children. Dilated cardiomyopathy can be caused by a number of conditions, including coronary heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, infection and lifestyle factors like alcohol and drug use and genetics.
For Pelletier and her family, the diagnosis was frightening — but not unfamiliar. Thirteen years prior to her diagnosis, Pelletier's older sister, Nadine, was diagnosed with the same condition and required a heart transplant. Testing revealed that Pelletier, Nadine and their paternal uncle were all carriers of a genetic variation that caused all three to develop dilated cardiomyopathy following infection.
Doctors drained seven litres of fluid from Pelletier, who was placed on the transplant list for three weeks, but she began experiencing chest pain — and her heart function declined from 10 per cent to 5 per cent. On Dec. 4, she underwent surgery to have a LVAD surgically implanted as a form of life support until a good match for a heart becomes available. However, during surgery, her doctor was unsure if the right side of her heart was strong enough to support the device and debated installing a right ventricular assist device (RVAD) as well.
'It was pretty much a guessing game, and they had to keep her in a coma because her heart was so enlarged they couldn't completely close her,' Roseann said. 'They had only taped her chest shut until the swelling went down."
"That was the longest week of my life."
Doctors told Pelletier she needed three months to recover before she could be put back on the transplant list. Since her surgery, she's been living in Quebec City in a specialized residence 15 minutes away from the Institut Universitaire De Cardiologie Et De Pneumologie De Québec.
Roseann was able to take leave from work to stay with Pelletier, but the medical costs have begun to pile up. Although subsidized by the hospital, her residence costs approximately $2,000 per month, in addition to prescription medications, groceries and travel expenses back and forth to the hospital three times a week. A GoFundMe was created to help offset costs while she recovers.
Pelletier was discharged from hospital earlier this month, but wasn't put on the transplant list just yet. A follow-up appointment in April will determine whether or not it's safe to put her on the list, since the right side of her heart has also declined. Pelletier is optimistic, hopeful and working on building her strength for when a heart becomes available.
While she waits for a new heart, she won't be able to return to work or school with the LVAD. It will be another year after the transplant before she can work or finish her Bachelor of Arts with a major in gerontology and minor in psychology — the risk for complications or rejection is too high.
I've been very positive through it all. I don't even know how I've done it myselfChantal Pelletier
Since returning home, Pelletier has been able to spend time with her boyfriend and reconnect with friends. Although many of her friends have gone out of their way to visit her, Pelletier has also been on her own homecoming tour.
"I've visited different people in my small town to thank them for their support and the love I have received from the public has really illuminated how much I am loved," she said in an update via email. "It's really heartwarming knowing I'm still here."
Another activity that's lifted her spirits? Driving.
"Driving has always been a relaxing escape for me, so the first time I stepped foot into the drivers seat I felt instantly at home again," she said.
However being back in Grand Falls hasn't been without its challenges. Pelletier's portable LVAD, which requires her to wear a backpack and carry spare parts and extra batteries, has drawn suspicious looks and comments from employees at local stores.
"I might be the only LVAD patient in my small town, but who knows, I certainly might not be the last," she said. "I'm glad I'm here everyday, despite the arrogant and distrusting people. All I can do is keep going, keep my head up, and help others understand that living with a HeartMate3 isn't always easy, but I make the best of it everyday. I wake up everyday happy I'm still alive."
Heart failure may have slowed the ambitious and active Pelletier down, but it hasn't broken her emotionally.
'I've been very positive through it all. I don't even know how I've done it myself,' she said. 'Just knowing that [the LVAD] saves me… without something right now I would be gone. I think that's what keeps me going.'
She's been able to shift her focus from school to being as healthy and strong as possible while she waits for a new heart. Aside from her sister being her sounding board for her worries and fears about heart failure, social media has been an invaluable outlet that's helped Pelletier connect with other people.
'I've had a lot of nurses and a lot of people with LVADs reach out and express how happy they are that I'm sharing everything and what it looks like,' she said. 'I always said I want to create awareness. I want to spread positive information about what heart failure can look like. Even if it's a tough topic to talk about, you can still make it positive. You can still have a good quality of life and be in heart failure.'
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