There is life after heart failure – this black woman is trying to prove it

As more attention is paid to the Black maternal health crisis and the Black maternal mortality rate, advocates would love to add survivors of complications but coping with chronic health issues to the conversation.

Marsden, an Atlanta mother of two who survived postpartum heart failure and lives with complications, is trying to be sure what happened to her doesn’t occur to anyone else. He also tries to show you can live after heart failure.

“We can live beyond this diagnosis,” she said.

Marsden runs the Tina Marie Marsden Foundation and advocates for maternal and heart health and living with a disability. It also launched a web-based platform Why a lawyer, where other people could be connected to resources. Through her work, she cultivates a community of survivors and a support system for others. She is doing this work at a time when black women have the very best maternal mortality rate another demographic group, z heart disease because the primary cause.

Marsden noted that even with all of the increased attention being paid to the black maternal health crisis“We can’t prevent it 100%.”

She added: “There will still be women who receive some kind of diagnosis. We want to be there to provide support.”

Part of Marsden’s “why” is the memory of the diagnosis she received in 2002, after the birth of her second child, when she was in her early 20s.

She said initial warning symptoms akin to shortness of breath were dismissed as symptoms to be expected while pregnant. She was later given an emergency caesarean section, but no reason was given. About 4 months later, she still felt shortness of breath, lethargy, and a general feeling that something was unsuitable. She received several misdiagnoses, including walking pneumonia. Eventually, she received a devastating diagnosis: she had experienced congestive heart failure and had developed postpartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM). With this news, a brand new way of life began for her.

“I had no one to turn to. There was no one who looked like me and knew that they were going through what I was going through,” he recalled.

Still, Marsden continued. Ultimately, due to missed warning signs through the pregnancy and further complications afterwards, she had to have a mechanical heart pump/LVAD implanted, which she still lives with today. She also later learned that although she led a healthy and energetic lifestyle, she had a history of heart disease and cardiac complications on her father’s side.

“I didn’t think about it during my entire pregnancy,” the health spokeswoman also said.

Marsden’s work now also includes encouraging others to be their very own health advocates, especially when health care providers may dismiss their concerns and symptoms.

She said: “Too often we have this feeling when we advocate for health – just advocate in general – that by asking a question (about your health) you are questioning someone else’s knowledge (knowledge).”

Marsden emphasized that insisting on more precise answers and even getting a second opinion doesn’t undermine a physician’s authority.

“We should feel more comfortable constructing this network, constructing this team, because we’re a team. So don’t hesitate to ask questions,” she said.

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As someone who lives with a medical device and sometimes still has symptoms that need to be managed, Marsden also advocates for individuals with disabilities, whether meaning speaking out against housing discrimination or lobbying local government to consider certain health care bills.

Marsden also became an inspiration to others. Through her work, she got here into contact with many other people in the same situation, including a young woman who was diagnosed with the identical disease on the age of 18. Marsden recounted how the woman, who was in her 20s, said Marsden showed her that a full life, although not all the time easy, could be lived despite using a medical device.

Mutual support is a very important principle of Marsden’s work. Her foundation has a support group she calls “Sisters Gathering,” where other survivors have the chance to meet frequently within the Atlanta metro area to do fun activities.

She said social gatherings are effective in “showing women that diagnosis is not the tip goal. Because we didn’t fight to live, not to live. I fought to live because I would like to live.”