[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/12\/brandy-story-50ph\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/12\/brandy-story-50ph\/","headline":"Ryan Shazier’s 50 Phenoms: Transplant, Love, Faith Help Mother of 3 Survive Rare Pregnancy-Related Condition","name":"Ryan Shazier’s 50 Phenoms: Transplant, Love, Faith Help Mother of 3 Survive Rare Pregnancy-Related Condition","description":"It was the night before her son\u2019s 4th birthday, and Brandy Sweeney knew something was wrong. Eight months pregnant with her third baby, and first girl, Brandy couldn\u2019t sleep \u2013 just the latest symptom she was experiencing in a difficult pregnancy. Her first two pregnancies went smoothly and ended with her giving birth to healthy […]","datePublished":"2019-12-05","dateModified":"2023-04-17","author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/heart-vascular","name":"Heart and Vascular Institute","url":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/heart-vascular","sameAs":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/heart-and-vascular-institute\/","parentOrganization":"UPMC"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"UPMC HealthBeat","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/blog1.jpg","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/blog1.jpg","height":325,"width":754},"url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/12\/brandy-story-50ph\/","about":["Health Topics A-Z","Heart and Vascular Health","UPMC Stories"],"wordCount":1681,"keywords":["Ryan Shazier's 50 Phenoms","Ryan Shazier\u2019s 50 Phenoms Season 1"],"articleBody":"It was the night before her son\u2019s 4th birthday, and Brandy Sweeney knew something was wrong.Eight months pregnant with her third baby, and first girl, Brandy couldn\u2019t sleep \u2013 just the latest symptom she was experiencing in a difficult pregnancy.Her first two pregnancies went smoothly and ended with her giving birth to healthy baby boys.This one had been different. As excited as she was to be having a baby girl, problems had plagued her throughout her pregnancy.\u201cI always loved being pregnant,\u201d Brandy says. \u201cI always felt good. People were so nice to you and complimentary. With my daughter, it did feel different from the beginning. I thought, well, maybe it\u2019s because it\u2019s a girl.\u201cThey always say girls suck the beauty out of you. I thought maybe that\u2019s what it was.\u201dIt wasn\u2019t. What began as normal pregnancy symptoms became worse. Normally a healthy person \u2013 \u201cTylenol was the most medicine I would even take\u201d \u2013 Brandy began dealing with a \u201cterrible\u201d cough and sleepless nights.The night before her son\u2019s birthday, as she lay awake again, Brandy began to cry. Something serious was happening. She hoped it might be something simple.It wasn\u2019t.It was peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), a rare and potentially life-threatening heart condition usually diagnosed late in pregnancy or soon after delivery.\u201cIt was a scary moment because here I was, not having a clue,\u201d Brandy says. \u201cI\u2019m thinking, \u2018I\u2019m about to have a baby, and you\u2019re telling me that I have a heart problem and I could die?\u2019\u201dBecause of the heart problem, Brandy had to deliver her baby girl early, at 35 weeks. But that was only the beginning of the process. She eventually had a heart-assist device installed before getting a lifesaving transplant.Today Brandy lives in Point Pleasant, W.Va., with her husband, three healthy children, and a healthy heart. She doesn\u2019t forget the struggle it took to get there and how lucky she is to have all of it.\u201cI figure if I could go through all of that in five months, heck, I could probably do anything,\u201d Brandy says.\u2018I Just Started Bawling\u2019Before finding out about her heart problems, Brandy was living a normal life in Point Pleasant, W.Va., with her husband Brandon and their two young sons.A frequent volunteer in the community, Brandy \u2013 38 years old at the time \u2013 was deep into the third trimester of her pregnancy.\u201cI was finally pregnant with my first daughter, which I was so pumped about,\u201d she says. \u201cYou know, everybody wants a daughter to put the bows in and all that good stuff. We were just that typical family waiting on that girl. Then we still were very involved in our community, in our church, and everything.\u201dThis pregnancy was giving Brandy more trouble than the first two. She was experiencing significant swelling and a bad cough, and she was having trouble sleeping.Brandy chalked these symptoms up to a difficult pregnancy. She thought she was experiencing different symptoms because it was her first girl.That\u2019s common for PPCM, which affects between 1,000 and 1,300 women in the United States each year. The symptoms often mirror the symptoms of a normal pregnancy, leading to a challenging diagnosis.But the night before her son\u2019s birthday, another sleepless night, Brandy knew something was very wrong. She and Brandon went to their local hospital and received the diagnosis of PPCM.\u201cI looked at my husband, and I just started bawling,\u201d Brandy says. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018What the heck? I am just pregnant; I\u2019m not in congestive heart failure and dying.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u2018I Felt Like My Life Was out of Control\u2019PPCM is a disease with widely varied outcomes depending on the symptoms. And when it is diagnosed during pregnancy, treatment can be difficult because some of the typical heart medicines can affect the unborn baby.In its most severe cases, PPCM can be life-threatening.Brandy ended up delivering a healthy 5-pound baby girl, Braylon, at her local hospital in West Virginia. But it was clear her heart problems wouldn\u2019t go away after birth.\u201cI was holding her for a few minutes, and then all of a sudden I started shaking,\u201d Brandy says. \u201cI said, \u2018Honey, you need to take her. I\u2019m about to drop her.\u2019 And then they took her, and then took me to ICU.\u201dKnowing she needed more specialized heart care, Brandy came with Brandon to UPMC\u2019s Heart and Vascular Institute.When medicine didn\u2019t improve Brandy\u2019s heart failure enough, doctors took the next step with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). The LVAD can help a person\u2019s heart pump blood in a weakened state.Sometimes used as bridges to transplant and sometimes as a more permanent solution, LVADs can be lifesaving devices. But they also present complications to people living with them. They\u2019re connected to your body, making it difficult to get around. And they run on batteries, which require charging so the machine can continue to do its job.After getting the LVAD installed in September 2014, Brandy returned home to West Virginia. And although she knew the device that was helping keep her alive was necessary, it was a struggle at times. She felt \u201cplugged in\u201d to the wall with the device — unable to fit in certain places, unable to perform certain tasks.\u201cI\u2019m not going to lie, there were some days when I had the LVAD I would just break down and cry,\u201d she says. \u201cI felt like my life was just out of control. I couldn\u2019t just go take a shower like a normal person.\u201dAfter a couple of months on the LVAD, Brandy had a follow-up appointment at UPMC. It became clear that the LVAD also wasn\u2019t helping her condition enough. She would need a transplant.‘I Had to Keep Fighting’Brandy was on the transplant list for just over a month when she received a call about a potential heart, but the procedure never got off the ground. Because of an ice storm, the helicopter scheduled to take Brandy to Pittsburgh couldn\u2019t take off. And after Brandon drove the icy roads to Pittsburgh, the heart didn\u2019t come through.That experience proved to be the perfect \u201cdry run,\u201d Brandy says. Soon after that day, she got another call from Pittsburgh: A heart was available.Although ready for a new heart, Brandy felt some fear about the procedure. But she thought of her children and her faith, and she believed it was the right time. She said a difficult goodbye to her children at daycare, boarded the helicopter in West Virginia \u2013 the weather cooperated this time \u2013 and landed smoothly.She went in for her surgery late at night. Brandy\u2019s faith had carried her for much of her ordeal, and she said one more prayer before going under anesthesia.\u201cI prayed and prayed and prayed for God to make me get through this,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd then I prayed for the family of my donor because my family was crying happy tears, and I know that they were crying because they lost a loved one.\u201dThe procedure lasted eight hours. It didn\u2019t take nearly as long for Brandy to know it worked. She felt the evidence as soon as she woke up.\u201cMy heart felt like it was pumping out of my chest,\u201d she says. \u201cI was very aware of this new, very strong, heartbeat. I had not experienced a heartbeat like that. It\u2019s so amazing.\u201dWhat happened next confirmed that belief. Although she felt some normal pain from the procedure, she experienced no rejection of the new heart.She went through physical therapy \u2013 in fact, she finished the process ahead of schedule.After Brandy returned home, her family became an unofficial form of physical therapy: \u201cTrust me, no one let me just sit around,\u201d she says.Not that she wanted to anyway.\u201cHonestly, just the looks on my children\u2019s faces, and seeing their faces all the time, that right there was motivation,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s what also prepared me because I knew I couldn\u2019t just sit around. Once this was all said and done, I had to continue fighting.\u201d\u2018With Every Beat of My Heart\u2019In many ways, Brandy has returned to her normal life in West Virginia. She volunteers extensively in the community. Her children \u2013 Braydon (9), Bryson (7), and Braylon (5) \u2013 are involved in various sports and activities, and Brandy acts as both coach and chauffeur.But she does it all with an awareness of what\u2019s inside her chest. She never knew her donor, but she found out about him through research. She communicates sometimes with his sister.\u201cBasically, with every beat of my heart, I mean, there\u2019s that constant reminder that you\u2019re here because of him,\u201d Brandy says. \u201cI can honestly say every milestone my kids hit, I totally think of him. From some of the research I have done, I\u2019ve seen that he played baseball. So every time my son hits a home run, I\u2019m thinking, \u2018Oh, my goodness, part of him is letting me see this, and it\u2019s something that he would have enjoyed as well.’\u201cThen sometimes when I\u2019m having a bad day, or I\u2019m grouchy with the kids, it does make me stop and think, \u2018You know what? There\u2019s worse things.\u2019 And I\u2019m lucky that I get to be that grouch.\u201dShe also became an advocate for organ donation. She speaks on the topic frequently in her community, and she even added it to her usual community service. Brandy began a holiday program called The Light of Christmas after her transplant. The celebration includes the planting of trees in Point Pleasant.Brandy makes it a point every year to plant a tree for organ donation.\u201cBe someone\u2019s hero,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause without my hero, I wouldn\u2019t be here today.\u201dEditor's Note: This video was originally published on December 5, 2019, and was last reviewed on May 11, 2022."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2019","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"12","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/\/12\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Ryan Shazier’s 50 Phenoms: Transplant, Love, Faith Help Mother of 3 Survive Rare Pregnancy-Related Condition","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/12\/brandy-story-50ph\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]