Grandmother Receives Double-Transplant During Heart Month
54-year-old Miriam Gonzalez Galindo began questioning how much longer she would live when she was forced to sit upright on a sofa chair just to be able to breathe while she slept.
Terrified to leave behind her grandchildren and family, she decided it was time to visit her primary doctor rather than suffer with her inability to breathe any longer.
Galindo was diagnosed with asthma and then pneumonia, both common respiratory disorders. She began receiving treatment for the disorders, but she found herself going downhill. As her condition grew progressively worse, she had to undergo countless medical tests.
Even the tests seemed life-threatening. During an electrocardiogram (EKG) she had to lie down. Suddenly she couldn’t draw a breath and was rushed to the emergency department. There, doctors discovered that her heart was functioning at just 15 percent and it was overloaded with liquid. This was an indication of coronary heart disease and heart failure.
Coronary heart disease is a plaque buildup in the heart’s arteries that occurs overtime and is the leading cause of death in America, affecting more than 13 million people each year. Some of the symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath, palpitations and chest pain. Walking, climbing stairs, and other everyday activities become very difficult.
Galindo’s situation was critical. However, the hospital where she was receiving care could no longer help her, so she was transferred to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) in December 2015.
“I never thought I would get this sick,” said Galindo. “I’ve always been an outgoing and happy individual. I just wanted to regain my health—whatever it took.”
After meeting with physicians at the Miami Transplant Institute (MTI), an affiliation between Jackson Health System and UHealth—University of Miami Health System, Galindo was told that her only chance at survival was a heart transplant. As an expert in handling critically ill heart failure patients, UHealth cardiologist Sandra Chaparro, MD, took on her case.
“Her initial presentation was unusual given a large amount of fluid around her heart, in the lungs and low contractility of the heart,” said Dr. Chaparro. “She failed oral therapy and eventually required intravenous medicines until her transplant.”
But test results showed another issue—her kidneys were failing as well. The cause was poorly controlled diabetes and poor cardiac function that blocked oxygenated blood from being sent to the kidney. She’d also need a kidney transplant.
After two months in the ICU, Galindo’s luck turned around fairly quickly when a compatible donor became available with the two organs she needed. She had her surgery February 13 and woke up on Valentine’s Day with her new heart. The surgery for her kidney was done the following day.
MTI is a major center for heart transplants and ventricular assist device (VAD) implantations, performing 775 heart transplants alone since the program opened in 1986. Additionally, the center performs 250 to 300 kidney transplants every year – more than any other program in Florida – and consistently ranks within the top three centers nationally for volume.
The South Florida grandmother anxiously awaits her return home to be reunited with her grandchildren and loved ones.
“This has been an overnight miracle,” said a thankful Miriam Gonzalez Galindo. “I am blessed that a stranger saved my life.”
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