At only 26, Rachel Freedman had the endurance of someone in the fifty.
The graduated student from New York City should catch your breath after rising the metroppiece, going on a groceries and even taking a shower. On walks with friends, she felt ‘like a gorilla’ on her chest while struggling to keep up.
Freedman assumed that she just had to lose weight and started exercising more to get her energy back.
But after he had been taken to the hospital in May 2019 for an unknown problem, an electrocardiogram (EKG) showed an abnormal heart rhythm.
Although doctors stood on it: “It was probably no problem,” Freedman’s mother encouraged her to test further.
Cardiologists at Nyu Langone Health performed an echocardiogram, an ultrasound of the heart, and found obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), so that the walls of the heart slowly thicken and block blood flow.
The one-on-500 genetic disorder often causes no symptoms, so thousands of patients do not know that they have it until they undergo heart failure or cardiac arrest.
It is also the main cause of sudden cardiac deaths in young people who have risen in the US.
Rachel Freedman, depicted here, was only 26 when she was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), making the walls of the heart thicker and block the bloodstream
Data shows that heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths increase in young Americans. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the main cause of sudden heart death in this age group
Freedman, now 32, said: ‘I had no idea what it was. How can I have this and not know? ‘
The deaths of the heart attack are enriched in the US, with recent research by Harvard, which suggests that an increase of 17 percent in the years after the COVID Pandemie.
Those researchers discovered that many of these attacks took place at home, which suggests that symptoms or precursors were ‘missed’ until it was too late.
Doctors said Freedman that her heart muscle was more than 30 millimeters thick, three times more than that of an average healthy person, which suggests that her condition had been advanced despite being only 26.
This usually happens in the septum, where the wall distributes the two soil rooms of the heart.
This presses the most important pump chamber of the heart, which makes it work harder to deliver blood throughout the body and to cause irregular heartbeats that can cause cardiac arrest.
Freedman quickly started taking medication to lower her heart rate, lower cholesterol and relax the heart, including beta -blockers, blood thinners and statins.
Three months later, doctors also implanted a defibrillator in her chest, which shocks the heart of an irregular rhythm in a normal rhythm.
Despite losing 60 pounds in a year to put less stress on her heart, her symptoms did not improve and she was ‘really limited’.
Dr. Daniele Massera, Freedman’s cardiologist, said: ‘She could only walk on the treadmill for six minutes. At 26 you would expect much more. She had fainting despite medical therapy.
“Rachel wanted to avoid surgery at all costs, but if you faint and have a diagnosis of HCM, that is a very risky situation.”
Freedman, depicted here, said she should catch her breath after walking the metroppiece, going on a groceries and even taking a shower because her heart muscle was three times thicker than normal
Freedman underwent a septale myectomy, a kind of open heart surgery intended to remove part of the thickened heart tissue. She is now married recently and follows a master’s degree. Freedman is depicted here with her husband
In August 2020, 15 months after her diagnosis, Freedman underwent a septale myectomy, a kind of open heart surgery intended to remove part of the thickened heart tissue. In general it takes three to four hours.
After the operation, Freedman completed four months of cardiac rehabilitation, which usually concerns light cardio and strength training and training on heart-healthy interventions such as diet and quitting smoking.
Almost five years later, Freedman can keep her friends on walks and walk up the stairs without stopping and catching her breath. Her chest pain has disappeared and she can now walk the Brooklyn bridge to come home instead of taking the metro.
She also married in 2022 and follows a master’s degree to become a supervisory advisor in high school.
Freedman said, “I would say to my doctors,” You didn’t just save my life, you have changed my life. ”
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