For 18 years, Brendalis Vega's life revolved around raising her kids. The Buffalo mom had never been away from her six children for more than a couple of days. She also had never been away for more than a few hours from her 2-year-old kid, but that all changed in early January when her health suddenly took a turn for the worse.
The stay-at-home mother from Hamburg, New York, began experiencing shortness of breath and chest pains at the start of the year. Vega went from being at home feeling healthy and energetic to getting treatment at a Buffalo hospital emergency room in a matter of days.
She was eventually rushed to UR Medicine Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester as her medical condition worsened. The 35-year-old discovered that she needed to get a heart transplant fast.
Vega terrified she would never see her children again
Vega left her kids, who range in age from 2 to 18, and her partner, Jose Collazo, to get treatment at Strong Memorial, where she would spend two months. Visitor restrictions brought upon by the COVID pandemic meant that Vega only had one designated adult visitor: her sister, who lives locally.
Fortunately for Vega, technology made it easier for her to communicate with her family as she could Facetime with her partner and their kids frequently. However, it could never fill the void she felt at the time. She was terrified she would never see her six children again as her condition worsened.
According to transplant cardiologist Sabu Thomas, M.D., M.Sc., Vega had experienced a rapid decline by the time she arrived in Rochester, with the cause of her heart failure still undetermined.
Thomas added that her heart was pumping at only 15 percent, with its normal ejection fraction only at about 60 percent. According to the Mayo Clinic, ejection fraction measures the percentage of blood leaving a person's heart each time it squeezes. They put her on medications and an intra-aortic balloon pump to support Vega's failing heart.
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Vega given a second chance on February 4
She said that there is always a concern a heart won't become available in time because donor organs are scarce in their region and across the United States. Just when it seemed all hope was lost for Vega, the UR Medicine Transplant team delivered the best news a mother could hear. A heart suddenly became available on February 4, giving Vega and her entire family a second chance.
Her heart transplant was a huge success, the third for the UR Medicine team in just five days. Cardiac transplant surgeons Katherine L. Wood, M.D., and Igor Gosev, M.D., Ph.D., could not have been more pleased with the outcome of the transplant despite a snow storm causing minor delays in getting the new heart to Rochester, according to Buffalo News.
Vega's first thought after waking up from her surgery was her children, saying that she had been so worried she was not going to be alive for long. She added that a new heart meant she'd get back home to her young kids.
