"A nurse called me at home after midnight and when I got to the hospital about ten people were around her and she's yelling she can't breath," Jeff Doyle, the new father remembers. "You never hear of anything happening to the mother after a normal delivery. I was scared and started crying and the nurses pulled me out of the room so Stacey would not see how upset I was."

Stacey suffered from postpartum cardiomyopathy, an unexplained weakening of the heart that affects one in every 1,300 to 4,000 women after giving birth. "All I remember is passing out and waking up in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit)," the young mother recalled.

According to Radha Gopalan, MD, Medical Director of the Heart Failure and Transplant Program at Lankenau Hospital, one-third of women suffering from postpartum cardiomyopathy are able to recover normal heart function spontaneously, one third require life long medication, and one third eventually need a heart transplant. Unfortunately for Stacey, she would experience the worse case scenario.

Dr. Gopalan put Stacey on medications and her heart recovered enough so she could go home in early June. But it didn't last. By July she was not feeling well and was admitted to Lankenau Hospital for tests. "My mother-in-law and I heard 'Code Blue GI Lab' over the loudspeaker and we knew that's where Stacey was and rushed over as fast as we could," Jeff recalls. Stacey had coded and the doctors and nurses worked for more than half an hour to bring her back to life.

Surgical Director and Heart Transplant Surgeon Louis Samuels, MD implanted two ventricular assist devices (VAD) to keep her heart pumping. "Postpartum cardiomyopathy is very variable, very rare and potentially life threatening," says Dr. Samuels. "Some patients get through it well and recover heart functions, while at the other extreme some patients go into heart failure and shock as Stacey did."

On August 19, Stacey was placed on the 1A list for a transplant and sent home with an implantable electric Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) to wait for a new heart. Luckily, she didn't wait long. On Sunday, August 21 she got the call that a heart was available. Dr. Samuels performed the transplant the next day. In early September Stacey finally went home for good and could be a real mother to Owen, now four months old.

"During all this time I barely saw him and it tore me apart every time my family brought the baby to visit," said Stacey. "Jeff was also devastated and in addition to worrying about me, he had to take care of a baby. He had never babysat or anything like that before. Thank God we had so much support from both our parents who live in the area."

Today, Stacey feels great and the Doyle's are thankful to be a family. "Drs. Gopalan and Samuels and their team were fantastic through the whole ordeal assuring us Stacey could return to a normal and long life," says Jeff. "There were three or four times I thought she may not make it. If we had not had the baby at Lankenau, if she had not been at the hospital when she coded, if Lankenau didn't have a heart failure and transplant program...her life may not have been saved." One thing Jeff knows for sure, he's not sweating the small stuff after this experience.

"The staff, nurses and physical therapists were phenomenal and very supportive in helping me get through each day," adds Stacey. "But I wouldn't be here without Drs. Gopalan and Samuels. I had to let the doctors do the job of finding me a new heart then I had to do the job of getting better."

Dr. Radha Gopalan and Dr. Louis Samuels with Stacey and Jeff Doyle (and baby Owen).

The Heart Failure and Transplant Program at Lankenau Hospital offers aggressive medical and surgical care focused on prevention of disease progression, timely intervention, and improvement of the patient's quality of life, along with comprehensive lifestyle management addressing any nutritional, exercise-related, or psychological needs of the patient. Learn More!

Media Contact:
Frieda Schmidt, Media Relations
Lankenau Hospital
610-645-3311
schmidtf@mlhs.org

Published:5-11-2007