Speaking from the Heart

STORIES BY RILL RADFORD THE GAZETTE

For Eliz Greene, it began with a feeling of heartburn that in minutes became a struggle for survival.

For Bridgette Soto, it started with an all-consuming weariness and a shocking diagnosis that led to a painful wait for a new heart.

Cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke, claims more women's lives in the United States than the next six causes of death combined -- nearly 500,000 lives a year. Greene and Soto are among the lucky ones: They survived.

Now they're spreading the word about women's risk of heart disease. Greene, of Wisconsin, is the keynote speaker at the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women Education Day in Colorado Springs; Soto, who lives in Fountain with her husband and two young daughters, will be honored at Friday's event.

Proceeds from Go Red will benefit research and educational programs of the American Heart Association.

"I feel lucky," Greene says. "I know I was lucky in the treatment that I received and the new technology that was available to me."

Bridgette Soto was tired. Exhausted, really.

That wasn't surprising: It had been just two weeks since she had given birth to her second child, Anais. There were late nights with Anais and she had Tianna, then 2, to watch out for, too.

Over the next couple days, other symptoms joined her fatigue, most notably nausea. "I couldn't stop vomiting," she said.

Still, she figured it was no big deal, that it would pass. She was 22 and, overall, the picture of health. But when she started having trouble breathing, she was alarmed enough to go to the emergency room at Evans U.S. Army Hospital at Fort Carson; her husband, Jose, is stationed at Fort Carson.

The bad news came in waves. She was told she was suffering from heart failure and was transferred to Memorial Hospital. There she was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a serious disease in which the heart muscle becomes inflamed and can't work as it should.

One form commonly develops late in pregnancy or in the first months after childbirth; the cause isn't clear, but black women are at greater risk.

Soto was sent to University Hospital in Denver, where she was told the situation was dire. She needed a new heart.

"They said, if we don't do something now, she's not going to make it," she said.

So on March 21, doctors surgically implanted a left ventricular assist device, or LVAD, to help her weakened heart pump blood and buy her time until a donor heart could be found.

But having the LVAD was an ordeal. She had trouble adjusting and was unable to eat, so she had to have a feeding tube inserted.

She had been a healthy young woman. Now she felt old. The pain was constant.

Her husband and her mother took care of her as well as the two little girls. She was scared and depressed and cried every day. But her husband, she says, was a rock.

"I tried to be, anyway," Jose Soto said. It was his role, he said, to be strong, to be the one others learned on.

But as his wife struggled, he worried for the first time that he might lose her.

Before, there had been little time to react. Now, he said, "I was watching my wife waste away right before my eyes."

On July 15, Bridgette Soto got the call she had feared she would never get: There was a possible heart for her.

Soto and her husband raced to Denver; when they got tied up in traffic, an ambulance was dispatched to pick her up. Soon, she was at the hospital undergoing surgery.

When she awoke, the LVAD was gone and a new heart was beating in her chest. All she knows about the donor is that she was a 51-year- old woman.

"I really feel for the family who gave me this heart," she said. "I feel like there's no way to say thank you for a heart."

A little more than two months later, her recovery continues. She goes to cardiac rehab three days a week and takes about 30 pills a day -- some to keep her body from rejecting her new heart, others to counter the side effects of the anti-rejection medicines.

The ordeal remains fresh in her mind, but taking care of two young children keeps her from dwelling on it much. Overall, she's feeling strong.

And grateful.

"I didn't think I was going to make it. I thought, you know, that that was it."

DETAILS

Go Red for Women Education Day, a public-awareness and fundraising event for the American Heart Association, is 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at the Antlers Hilton, 4 S. Cascade Ave. The day includes health screenings, interactive exhibits, a medical-panel discussion and a hearthealthy lunch. Eliz Greene, the "Red Dress Lady," is the keynote speaker. Cost is $65. To register, call 635- 7688; the deadline is Tuesday.

Copyright 2005
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.