By Ellen Kenny
One young woman got a second chance at life following a heart transplant – and then a chance to be immortalised when she gave her old heart to a museum.
In 2006, Jennifer Sutton was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy, a disease that stiffens some of the heart’s chambers, preventing blood from pumping around the body. Read the full article in Newstalk.
By Laura Williamson, American Heart Association News
When Dawn Mussallem was little, she dreamed of having her face on a Smucker’s jar – the recognition the “Today” show gives to people who reach their 100th birthday.
So, she committed herself to eating a healthy plant-based diet, eschewing junk food and many childhood staples, like chocolate milk and sugary cereals. She also stayed physically active – becoming a competitive gymnast and running on the weekends.
Read the full story in American Heart Association News.
By Laura Williamson
Melanie Wickersheim has no memory of the first time her heart gave her trouble. She was an infant, and her pediatric myocarditis – an inflammation of the muscular walls of the heart – resolved before she was old enough to know anything had ever been wrong.
She spent the first 10 years of her life like any other kid in Los Angeles, believing she was perfectly healthy. Until suddenly, she wasn’t. She couldn’t hold down food. She felt so weak, she could barely walk. “I remember trying to walk across a parking lot. I had to stop at every light pole to take a breath, panting for air,” she said. Read the story in American Heart Association News.
Ryan Scoble thought he had the flu. He soon learned he was in heart failure and needed a transplant. Still, he hoped to return to the lacrosse field.
By Meghan Holohan
Two years ago, Ryan Scoble was playing lacrosse when he felt short of breath and fatigued. He wondered if he had the flu.
“I was struggling in warmups. I got in late in the third quarter,” the 23-year-old lacrosse long stick middie from Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania, told TODAY’s Harry Smith. “I was struggling to make plays and even really stand up.”
Read the full story on Today.