Woman survives heart failure at 31

Ways you can spot the deadly condition of acute viral myocarditis

HOUSTON, Texas – Imagine thinking you had a case of bronchitis, and then fighting for your life. Acute viral myocarditis is a condition you've probably never heard of, but it can strike otherwise young and healthy people at any time and is responsible for five to 20 percent of all cases of sudden death.

"Really, it's the definition of unthinkable that something like this would have happened," wife and mother Monica Clem said.

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Just a couple weeks shy of her 32nd birthday, Monica felt short of breath and her heartbeat was off.

"It was a like dun dun dun dun dun dun," she explained.

Since Monica was recovering from bronchitis, she wrote it off, but she said that later that night, "I couldn't fall asleep. I kept feeling like there was something wrong with my heart."

When she got up and fainted, her husband called 911. On the way to the hospital, Monica's heart stopped several times.

"The doctor came out and said, 'We don't know what's wrong with her. We're going to (airlift) her over to Med Center, but I think she's got about a 20 percent chance of surviving,'" said Nick Clem, Monica's husband.

Dr. Biswajit Kar, chief and program director of the Medical Division for the Center for Advanced Heart Failure at UT Health Medical School, was there when she arrived.

"I wish you could see the state she came in. We all thought she was dead," Kar said.

He saved her and diagnosed her with acute viral myocarditis. Marked by inflammation of the heart muscle, it can strike at any age and is usually diagnosed after death.

"The difficulty in diagnosis is the failure to recognize that a young adult that walks into your office with cough and shortness of breath has a heart failure," Kar explained.

It's often caused by an infection that damages the heart. Symptoms can be flu-like, including dizziness, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, fatigue or a persistent cough. If symptoms last for more than a few days, see your doctor.

Monica spent nine days in a medically induced coma while doctors worked to cure the infection that wiped out her heart. Since chronic heart failure is a major long-term complication of the disease, Monica's been fitted with a heart defibrillator as a precaution. Now, two years later, Monica is thankful her story had a happy ending.

Additional Information:

Acute viral myocarditis is a rare and challenging condition to treat and diagnose; it has been a cause of congestive heart failure for more than 50 years. Myocarditis usually attacks otherwise healthy individuals and is believed to cause 20 percent of sudden death in young adults. The condition is so complicated to diagnose and treat simply because there is no clinically proven treatment for myocarditis and most cases have no symptoms at all. Because it can occur suddenly, acute viral myocarditis can result in death for many patients. Myocarditis means inflammation and/or damage of the heart muscle and many viruses are known to cause the condition, including viral infections, autoimmune diseases, environmental toxins, and adverse reactions to medications.
(Source: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/119/19/2615.full)


SYMPTOMS OF MYOCARDITIS: Symptoms usually develop seven to 14 days after a viral illness. The most common symptoms of myocarditis are:


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