For Emily Glover and her fiancé Dylan, life was very exciting, with new baby, Hudson, the little family was enjoying all the joy that a new baby offered. Emily’s pregnancy had been normal, she had been very active and healthy and Hudson was born strong and happy.
It was just 6 weeks post-partum however when Emily started to feel ill.
“I couldn’t walk more than a couple of metres before needing to sit down,” Emily said.
“I was vomiting clear fluid which was later diagnosed as a collapsed lung but I didn’t connect all the symptoms as something serious until I eventually went to the hospital and they realized there was something very wrong,” Emily said.
Emily was diagnosed with peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), or postpartum cardiomyopathy, an uncommon form of heart failure occurring towards the end of pregnancy or in the months following delivery, when no other cause of heart failure can be found.
PPCM is diagnosed in individuals without a prior diagnosis of heart disease and is a condition where the heart chambers enlarge and the heart muscle weakens, causing a decrease in the amount of blood the heart pumps with each heartbeat. The weakened heart can cause fatigue and low blood pressure due to less blood flow through the body, as well as swelling in legs and abdomen due to fluid buildup in organs like the lungs and liver, that can eventually cause these organs to shut down and in extreme cases, such as Emily’s, require a heart transplant.
“I ended up in ICU and that was where I was told I would need to be transferred urgently to a specialist hospital and only then did I realise how severe and life threatening it was,” Emily continued.
The Westpac Rescue Helicopter was tasked on an urgent inter-hospital transfer for Emily from John Hunter Hospital to St Vincents Hospital in Sydney.
“When I arrived at St Vincents, the medical team from the aircraft stayed with me and it was there that I was told I would need to have a heart transplant. I was listed on the emergency organ transplant list and on the eighth day of being on that list I received news that I was to receive a heart, which was a very surreal phone call,” Emily said.
“My recovery has been amazing and I would encourage anyone who is considering organ donation to do it, as you never know whose life you may be saving in the future. A selfless family chose to donate their loved ones heart and it has saved my life, which means I get to see my son grow up and I got to marry my husband.”
“I’m going to explain to Hudson that his mums pretty cool and the scar down my chest explains how much I love him. I always say to Hudson and my husband that I’ve been able to love them with two hearts and not a lot of people can say that.”
“I definitely never thought that I would need the Westpac Rescue Helicopter. We always see it in the air where we are and we say to Hudson, ‘look they are saving someone else just like they saved mummy’”.
“There’s not enough ‘thank yous’ to say to that crew on the aircraft and how grateful my family and I are to them,” Emily concluded.
