From Heart to Heart
After surviving Acute Heart Failure at 33 years old I felt very alone in my recovery. I had never met anyone with heart failure let alone someone near my age. After beginning to share my story publicly and on social media I began meeting many other people who had also survived Acute Heart Failure. Some of these people had experienced it years before me, some had received a heart transplant and others were loved ones with family members currently hospitalized due to it. Connecting with these patients and family members was carthartic and opened my eyes to a whole new community of people I now had much in common with. I wanted to create this podcast so that other people who experienced heart failure could find this community of beautiful people and find the same hope and comfort that I did from hearing their stories. I hope that this podcast not only opens your eyes to a whole new community of brave, inspiring individuals, but that you also learn more about heart failure and all the ways in which it can affect people. Thank you for being here!
Disclaimer: This podcast does not include any medical advice and should not be taken as such. All views are our own and they are based upon individual lived experiences. Please speak with your healthcare provider if you have any questions related to your own health.
If you'd like to follow along on my heart failure advocacy and recovery journey you can find me on Instagram @hillarysheart. For any questions, comments or inquiries you can contact me via email at hillary@hillarysheart.com.
From Heart to Heart
Franziska Bleis - Myocarditis and Heart Transplant
Abiomed has been such a wonderful resource for me, connecting me to so many people all over the world who have experienced heart failure. Today, I get to introduce you to Franzi. She lives in Germany which also happens to be where Thorstein Seiss, the inventor of the Impella lives and is from. Franzi shares her story about how coming down with the common cold led her on a scary years long journey of battling heart failure. She went from a common cold to heart failure and needing an Impella, to her husband performing CPR on her, then getting a defibrillator and later receiving a heart transplant. One of Abiomed’s headquarters is actually in Germany but I was surprised to hear that organ donation rates are very low there. Franzi is a hero. She is boldly sharing her story to help bring more awareness to the need for organ donation in her home country. Franzi was very nervous to record this podcast because she was worried her English would not be good enough but I assure you she speaks much better English than I do German and I was incredibly impressed by her fluency.
You can find me on instagram @hillarysheart and you can find Franzi there as well @franzis_herzkraftwerk
To become an organ donor in Germany please follow this link: https://organspende-register.de/erklaerendenportal/
To become an organ donor in the U.S. please follow this link: https://www.organdonor.gov/sign-up
To learn more about the Impella device go to abiomed.com
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đŸ«€, Hillary