Grateful for every heartbeat

Grateful for every heartbeat

When Angela Schlegel went into hospital for Covid complications, she was shocked to be told that she also had heart failure due to a rare autoimmune condition. She shares her story with us on World Heart Day.

"It started two years before Covid. I was feeling quite fatigued and I was told I had adult asthma, but it seemed to come out of nowhere," Angela tells This Is MedTech. "After a holiday where I was finding it hard to keep up with my friends on a mountain hike, other symptoms started to emerge. I got purple rashes and lost my sense of smell. I tried everything but I wasn't getting better."

For the next two years, Angela struggled to find answers. Then the pandemic hit. "When I got Covid, I expected a quick recovery as I was only 36. But I kept getting worse," she explains. Angela became so ill that she ended up in intensive care on non-invasive ventilation. Doctors also found that her heart was not pumping as well as it should - in other words, she had heart failure.

With the help of medical technologies, doctors carried out numerous tests including an electrocardiogram to look for abnormalities in the electrical impulses of her heart, an echocardiogram that used ultrasound to check for anomalies in her heart's structure, and various blood tests. One blood test detected very high levels of eosinophils (eosinophilia), which are a type of white blood cell that protects your body from infection, foreign organisms and exposure to allergens. It's linked to various illnesses, including autoimmune disorders.

"Between my past symptoms and the eosinophilia, the doctors were able to diagnose me with a very rare autoimmune condition called eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis, or EGPA," Angela says. EGPA causes inflammation in your blood vessels which has an impact on your lungs and sometimes other organs. In some cases, like Angela's, it can cause heart damage.

"It was a scary time and the prognosis was bleak. At one point, I was saying goodbye to my family over the phone," recalls Angela, noting that nobody could visit her due to lockdown restrictions. But then she started improving. "Once the heart issue was picked up, I got the treatment I needed, and my heart was able to start recovering. If I hadn't had Covid, it wouldn't have been picked up. I'm so fortunate and grateful to my doctors."

She was in hospital for about five weeks. "When I got out of hospital, I couldn't even go up the stairs. I had to start from zero," she says. "But I've got this driver inside me to not give up. I've always focused on what was possible and over time I've been able to regain my quality of life. I'm now able to play tennis and go dancing again."

"Having a serious health condition can affect mental health," she adds. "This has been life changing but I am determined to make the most out of life. My heart has recovered and I accept I will always need treatment. But I love my life and I feel really lucky to be here."