Patient Stories

My doctor asked me to share my life experience, and to pass along the knowledge and the time he's dedicated to me. As I tell this today, I'm 59 years old, and it's been 4 years since it happened.

At first I should say that the initial diagnosis, given by 3 studies and 4 cardiologists, wasn't encouraging at all — when I was hospitalized and they came to check, my ejection fraction was only 5%. With the help of medication and fluid removal, it rose above 10%. A poor prognosis, with many possible causes that could have brought it on.

With the diagnosis came radical changes in my life: I quit smoking within 24 hours, changed my sleep habits, my diet, and even the way I saw life. At first I just sat watching time pass and thinking — I went through dark moments, I lashed out at everything and everyone — until I made the decision to have quality of life, not just quantity. After a few months of recovery I asked my doctor for guidance to have a better quality of life, and above all, to stop sitting around hoping things would improve on their own. That's when he recommended I start a rehabilitation therapy, where, under supervision and control, I would do exercises to help me have a better quality of life.

I have to say that when they did my stress test, I felt defeated — I lasted 30 seconds on the machine and two people had to help me down. The doctors' assessment was that there was a lot to recover, along with a very clear explanation of what I had and the chances of recovering through therapy.

They explained to me that the heart is also a muscle, and that, just like any other muscle, it can be rehabilitated. They compared it to an athlete: when they have a muscle tear or injury, they go through a rehabilitation therapy specific to the damaged muscle. That's when I understood that rehabilitation would help me improve my quality of life and increase my chances of getting better.

The early days of rehabilitation were exhausting — exercises I sometimes couldn't manage, or a routine I couldn't complete; a hard start of physical and emotional exhaustion, where the mental battle to keep going with rehabilitation was very difficult. That was the moment they suggested I also seek psychological help, since a large part of wanting to keep going, despite the diagnoses, comes down to the emotional capacity to keep going and hold on to hope.

Thanks to the guidance, patience, and knowledge of the doctors, the rehabilitation routines gradually made me feel better, both physically and emotionally. Knowing that during this time I was being watched over and monitored gave me the peace of mind to decide: I'm in the best hands, and I'll follow the instructions they give me.

18 months went by like that, with the doctors seeing improvement and me feeling it too, until the moment came when the same 3 studies and 4 cardiologists changed the diagnosis — from fatal to just needing maintenance. By maintenance I mean that at first I was taking 8 medications with no mobility, and now I only take 2 medications and have my mobility.

I know no medical case is the same — there will be similarities, but every human being has their own habits and ways of thinking, and being so unique makes it hard to accept a reality we hadn't planned for, no matter your age, when you have a medical condition you must attend to and take care of. The time in rehabilitation was a time of learning — of being patient with myself, of finding another way to live, and above all, of understanding that I couldn't have recovered something as valuable as quality of life on my own.

At first they diagnosed me with likely relapses and other discouraging things — I haven't had any. Today I know that, thanks to what I learned in rehabilitation, my body and I are better prepared. I don't know if I'll ever have a relapse; nobody knows why I got sick or what led me to that extreme, but I am sure that my improvement is thanks to rehabilitation.

I hope my story helps you make a life decision: to live with quality.

Good afternoon. I'm Daniel, a cardiac rehabilitation patient with Dra. Karol Hernández. I feel very good: I've been doing my therapy with her for quite a while now, and I've gone from 17% to almost 35% in heart strength. I recommend her 100%.