Advanced Heart Failure: Katina Williams' Story
Advanced Heart Failure: Katina Williams' Story
A life-saving helicopter ride to MedStar Health was Katina Williams first step in a journey to a new heart. Learn about heart transplant: https://www.medstarheartinstitute.org…{}
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0 -> I went to the doctor and I'm not feeling
well, having trouble breathing. I was
5.91 -> having more flu-like symptoms. We did a
chest x-ray and then we saw my heart was
14.7 -> enlarged. That's when I was rushed to
MedStar. That helicopter ride saved my life.
23.64 -> When she arrived here, she was in
cardiogenic shock, which simply meant
29.13 -> that neither side of her heart was
functioning in a way to provide blood
33.45 -> flow to her body. When patients have
end-stage heart failure, we don't have
37.68 -> the luxury of time to wait until we get
a heart transplant. She had many other
41.19 -> organ systems that were actually quite
ill.
43.829 -> And we were able to stabilize her and then
we had the resort to take her to surgery
48.329 -> to put in what we call ventricular
assist devices. Her own heart was simply
53.879 -> acting as a reservoir for blood to enter
and the two pumps were functioning in
59.699 -> essence as a total artificial heart.
There were times where they had a heart
66.33 -> for me and the timing was not right.
Katina waited for a better part of a
73.229 -> year for a heart. It was a long wait and
at times she got very ill, ill to the
78.659 -> point that we couldn't transplant her.
You know, I waited and waited and waited
82.89 -> and it was hard. I mean it was hard! I
knew, as I continued to keep my faith, I would get that heart one day.
95.479 -> So I went in, I remember that day very
vividly, and I closed the door and I
100.409 -> looked at her and I said your time has
come.
104.42 -> and we found your heart.
And you can see her face sort of lit up,
110.29 -> it was this big smile that came, she was
very excited. This is the moment she's
113.32 -> been waiting for. That was the happiest day of my life. Life after transplant
has been great. I'm back at work, working
125.95 -> full-time. I'm back driving, so it's just
nice. I feel good. A lot of energy. I'm
132.819 -> very determined to get back to where I
was. And now this amazing gift, the gift
138.55 -> of life, which is that donated heart is
allowing her to go back and live a
142.72 -> normal life. Very few people that present
with the degree of heart dysfunction
149.14 -> that she had in these malignant
arrhythmias would survive and that is
154.51 -> incredibly gratifying to all members of
our team.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL3rEgFPnaU