![\"Stacy](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/heart-photo-by-Christine-Long.jpg\")
<\/a>Stacy Rollins talked with UT Health cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Mark Bonnell during a recent checkup. She is sharing her story during American Heart Month.<\/p><\/div>February is American Heart Month, and Rollins is sharing her story to encourage other younger women to take care of themselves and pay attention to early warning signs of heart failure. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was in pretty good shape, but I had been under a lot of stress,\u201d Rollins said. \u201cI started to feel terrible. I couldn\u2019t breathe at night. I couldn\u2019t go up the stairs. I was coughing. I thought it was pneumonia.\u201d <\/p>\n
Turned out her heart was barely pumping. The cough wasn\u2019t a cold. The fatigue and breathlessness were symptoms of heart failure, which can become rapidly fatal. <\/p>\n
In Rollins\u2019 case, she had familial idiopathic cardiomyopathy \u2014 a weakening of the heart muscle that is inherited with unknown cause. <\/p>\n
Her only chance of survival was a Left Ventricular Assist Device, commonly known as an LVAD. It is a mechanical device that helps pump blood to the rest of the body.<\/p>\n
LVADs can serve as a bridge to a heart transplant or, in rare cases, as therapy for a patient as her heart heals. The longest a patient has lived with an LVAD is eight years and counting.<\/p>\n
\u201cNationally, about 1 percent or less of these LVADs are taken out for recovery,\u201d Bonnell said. \u201cHere at UTMC, we have actually taken out almost 10 percent of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
UT Health cardiologist Dr. Samer Khouri said heart disease risk factors include a poor diet, lack of exercise and stress.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what you call low-intensity stress that is continuous, unfortunately,\u201d Khouri said. \u201cThe cause can also be genetic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khouri said women, especially younger women, more often ignore or mistake symptoms of heart failure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an age where many have children,\u201d Khouri said. \u201cThey are so busy. They don\u2019t have time for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
With more women dying from heart disease than breast cancer and lung cancer combined, Rollins wants others to know she is alive and healthy today because she responded to the subtle symptoms of heart failure and asked for help.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am grateful for my doctors and my life,\u201d Rollins said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stacy Rollins wants to share her story during American Heart Month to make sure younger women know the signs of heart failure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":812,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,63],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38117"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38117"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61799,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38117\/revisions\/61799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}