I thought I was exhausted … doctors discovered that I had a deadly heart disease hiding behind daily fatigue

At just 26 years old, Rachel Freedman had someone’s endurance in their fifties.

The student graduated from new York You would have to catch your breath after mounting the stairs from the metro, go to a grocery store and even take a shower. During hikes with friends, she felt “like a gorilla” was sitting on her chest when she was fighting to follow.

Freedman supposed that she just needed lose weight And started to do more exercise to recover your energy.

But after being transported urgently to the hospital in May 2019 for an uncompromising problem, an electrocardiogram (EKG) showed an abnormal heart rate.

Although the doctors insisted that “it was probably not a big problem”, Freedman’s mother urged her to do other tests.

Cardiologists from Nyu Langone Health have echocardiogram, an ultrasound of the heart, and found an obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), which means that the walls of the heart slowly thicken and block the blood flow.

The genetic condition of one in 500 often causes no symptoms, leaving thousands of ignorant patients that they have it until they suffer from heart failure or cardiac arrest.

It is also the main cause of sudden heart deaths among young people, who increased in the United States.

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Freedman, now 32, said: “I didn’t know what it was. How could I have this and not know?

Heart-crisis deaths have increased in the United States, Harvard recent research suggesting a 17% increase in the years following the cocovid pandemic.

These researchers found that many of these attacks occurred at home, suggesting that symptoms or precursors had been “missed” until it was too late.

Doctors told Freedman that the heart muscle was more than 30 millimeters thick, three times more than a good medium health, which suggests that their condition was advanced despite whether it is only 26.

This usually occurs in the septum, the wall dividing the two bedrooms from the heart of the heart.

This searches the main pumping chamber of the heart, which makes it harder to deliver blood throughout the body and trigger erratic heartbeat that can cause cardiac arrest.

Freedman quickly started taking medication to reduce its heart rate, reduce cholesterol and relax the heart, including beta-blockers, anticoagulants and statins.

Doctors also implemented a defibrillator in his chest three months later, which shakes the heart of an irregular rhythm in a normal rhythm.

Despite the loss of 60 pounds in a year to put less stress on your heart, its symptoms did not improve and it was “really limited”.

Dr. Daniele Massera, cardiologist of Freedman, said: “She could only walk six minutes on the treadmill. At 26, you would expect much more. She had fainting despite medical therapy.

“Rachel wanted to avoid surgery at all costs, but if you get worse and have a HCM diagnosis, this is a very high risk situation.”

In August 2020, 15 months after his diagnosis, Freedman underwent septal myctomy, a type of open heart surgery intended to eliminate part of the thickened heart tissue. It usually takes three to four hours.

After surgery, Freedman finished four months of cardiac rehabilitation, which generally involves cardio and light strength training and education on healthy interventions like the diet and quit smoking.

Almost five years later, Freedman can follow his friends in hiking and set up the stairs without having to stop and catch his breath. Her chest pain has disappeared and she can now walk on the Brooklyn bridge to go home instead of taking the metro.

She also married in 2022 and continued a master’s degree to become a high school orientation advisor.

Freedman said: “To my doctors, I would say:” Not only did you save my life, you changed my life. “”