Latest news with #HeartFailureAwarenessWeek
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
21-year-old's heart was 'the size of a football' when she was diagnosed with end-stage heart failure. Warning signs and symptoms she wants you to know about
Chantal Pelletier has done something that influencers around the world have tried their best to understand: She's gone viral. In January 2025, 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. May 4-10 is Heart Failure Awareness Week. To understand what it's like to live with end-stage heart failure, you just have to look at Pelletier's social media accounts. A quick scroll through her Instagram 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. View this post on Instagram A post shared by 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙡 (@chantal__pelletier) '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. Read more: 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. After her surgery, she lived 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 began to pile up. Although subsidized by the hospital, her residence cost 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 in March. On April 23, she was officially put back on the transplant list, but due to her rare blood type, she's anticipating a five year wait to receive a compatible heart. 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.'
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
I was diagnosed with heart failure days before my 29th birthday. Warning signs and symptoms every Canadian should know
Aaron Ablona spent his 29th birthday unconscious. It was June 2015, and Ablona's birthday weekend was unfolding in a typical fashion — except he wasn't really feeling well. His memory of that time is hazy, stitched together by family members who were there. All he knows is just days before he turned 29, his family took him to the emergency room in Scarborough, Ont., where he went into cardiac arrest and then suffered multiple heart attacks. After being transferred to Toronto General Hospital, doctors discovered blockages of blood flow to the heart, also known as coronary artery disease. He was diagnosed with heart failure. Ablona spent the next several months recovering, including time at a rehabilitation centre and hospital stays. He also faced additional challenges including hypoxic brain injury, undergoing emergency quadruple bypass surgery, having an Automatic Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator installed, and ischemia — reduced blood flow to part of the body — which resulted in his leg being amputated in 2018. 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 lot of people relate heart attack, stroke or cardiac diseases in general to an older population,' Ablona told Yahoo Canada. 'But heart failure can affect anybody of any age." It's been almost a decade since his heart event. Now 38, Ablona is raising awareness about heart failure. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ablona joined online support groups for people living with heart failure. 'One of the things that helped me was finding a community of like-minded folk and other heart failure patients from around Canada who are going through similar things,' he said. 'Friends and family may not understand what you're going through. We share strategies and struggles and just talk in a judgment-free zone.' Friends and family may not understand what you're going through. We share strategies and struggles and just talk in a judgment-free Ablona on the support he's found online He's also joined local Toronto heart failure groups, including the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research and Transform HF, where he connects with researchers and patient partners to discuss heart failure research projects. Heart Failure Awareness Week runs from May 4 to 10, and the Canadian Heart Failure Society (CHFS) is aiming to educate Canadians about the signs of heart failure and when to seek emergency medical care. Over the past 30 years, deaths and disability from cardiovascular disease have been steadily rising worldwide, according to a 2020 study, and heart failure is one of the fastest growing cardiovascular conditions in the world. According to new data from the Public Health Agency of Canada, an estimated 120,000 Canadians will be diagnosed with heart failure this year, joining the 800,000 others who live with heart failure. Heart failure happens when the heart muscle cannot effectively pump blood. Blood then builds up in the lungs and legs, and can cause a shortness of breath and swelling of the legs and feet. Yahoo Canada spoke to Dr. Justin Ezekowitz, president of The Canadian Heart Failure Society and cardiologist at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, to find out what Canadians should know about heart diseases, as well as warning signs and symptoms. 'We want the broader public to be aware of the message for this year's Heart Failure Awareness Week: It's not normal to be breathless,' Ezekowitz said. 'The cardinal symptoms for patients with heart failure is shortness of breath, or breathlessness that is out of proportion to the activity that they're doing.' For example, people experiencing heart failure may be more out of breath during everyday activities, like going up a flight of stairs or walking down the block. 'That's one of the main symptoms that comes along early with most of our patients,' he added. Shortness of breath Breathlessness out of proportion to activity Edema (lower leg swelling) Fatigue Tiredness Patients often describe shortness of breath as if they were holding their breath underwater, Ezekowitz explained. 'You just can't get enough air when you're trying to do activities, and that's really a challenging symptom for many of our patients.' Routine tasks, like moving a box or picking up a can or a bag of groceries, now result in breathlessness. 'They're really huffing and puffing a lot more than they should be for the activity.' Symptoms vary based on age and other experience, but other common signs of heart failure include lower leg swelling (or edema), and fatigue or tiredness — especially if it's a recent change. 'We all get fatigued and tired,' Ezekowitz said. 'But this is out of keeping with the normal activities of daily life.' 'This is a disease that touches most people in Canada in one way or another,' Ezekowitz said. 'It's also increasing in its prevalence. We are seeing more and more of it across the country. It doesn't matter what province or city or rural area you're in, it is pretty ubiquitous.' Heart failure is a very serious condition, and while there is no cure, Ezekowitz noted it is treatable. 'We now have terrific medications and devices and other ways people can self-manage. We would love to put ourselves out of a job by preventing heart failure and cardiac disease in the first place.' This is a disease that touches most people in Canada in one way or Justin Ezekowitz The doctor encouraged all adults to be screened for high cholesterol and high blood pressure. If you're a smoker, stop smoking. Eating a healthy diet and getting a good amount of exercise each day is a great way to avoid developing a heart problem in the first place. 'Prevention is always going to be our number one go-to to help prevent the problem before it starts,' he said. 'Those are the very simplest of things we can do to make sure people don't end up having to see me and my colleagues.' Get screened for high cholesterol and high blood pressure Don't smoke Eat a healthy diet Exercise daily Ablona is continuing to adjust to life with heart failure, and he is also educating himself about the disease and spreading awareness. 'My friends and family were a great support system to lean on,' he said. 'They were the ones who prepared low-sodium meals and gave me space to rest when I was too tired to join social activities.' It's been a long journey, for himself and loved ones. 'While heart failure can be a burden on the patient, it can also take a toll on the caregivers,' Ablona said. 'There are also support groups for caregivers, a lot of them online.'
