Mother survives rare post-partum heart failure Published Feb. 22, 2011 By Leigh Coleman South Mississippi Living BILOXI, Miss. -- Editor's note: The following story is reprinted with permission from the February 2011 issue of South Mississippi Living magazine in recognition of National Heart Month. Trisha Meagher is married to Staff Sgt. Frank Meagher, 333rd Training Squadron, who's currently deployed to Afghanistan. By the time Trisha Meagher learned she was pregnant, she figured she knew a thing or two about childbirth from her first uneventful pregnancy. Her second was a different story. Never had she felt so tired, breathless or bloated. "I was swollen, more swollen than I had ever been, I felt horrible. But I first attributed it to what the doctors told me, that it was all normal," Meagher said. "But they were wrong." Meagher, then 28, got worse, not better during her last month of pregnancy. "I gained nearly 25 pounds in the last month. That was so out of the ordinary since I had only gained a little over the entire pregnancy," she said. "I knew something was wrong, very wrong. I told the doctors to induce me immediately." The day after she delivered a healthy baby girl, she started having more complications. She could hardly breathe. "I couldn't lay down, I couldn't walk from my bed to the bathroom without having to rest, I couldn't sleep, and my heart wouldn't stop racing," Meagher said. "The doctors dismissed my symptoms as anxiety but I knew they were wrong." She finally went to the emergency room one night. Doctors found that her heart had all but quit. She had somehow developed a rare and mysterious form of congestive heart failure called peripartum cardiomyopathy, which strikes pregnant women. When cardiologists made the diagnosis, Meagher's heart was pumping out about 15 percent of its blood volume, far less than the 60 to 70 percent common to healthy hearts. "That is why I want to tell my story," she said. "I never would have thought that I would suffer a sudden, catastrophic breakdown of the heart muscle at such a young age. My body was filled with fluid. It took time to get to the point where I could function. The road to recovery has been a long one." Doctors say they are no nearer to understanding pregnancy- related heart failure than when it was first described in the 1840s. The numbers, or the lack of them, are a big reason why so little is known about pregnancy-related heart failure. The cause remains a mystery. Doctors still don't know how often it occurs. In the USA, estimates veer wildly from one in every 3,000 to one in every 15,000 pregnancies. Meagher, now 32, resides in Biloxi with Frank, her husband, who is currently deployed to Afghanistan. Her two children, Luke, 7, and Felicity, 3, are healthy and keep their mother busy while dad is away on active military duty. Today, she is able to exercise and keep up with her daily routines. However, she will be on medication for the rest of her life. "I have learned a lot. This disease sometimes goes undiagnosed until it's too late, because heart failure symptoms mimic those of a normal pregnancy," Meagher said. She said pregnant women with the condition "often go to the doctor saying 'I'm short of breath, my legs are swollen and I can only walk a block or two,' and are ignored because that's the same litany of complaints doctors routinely hear from pregnant women. "I want to tell women to listen to their gut instinct and tell your doctors that you do not agree with them and if you think there is something else going on in your body," Meagher said. "I could not have made it through all of this without my faith in the Lord and the support of my husband, Frank. Women need to exercise every day. The doctors did tell me that because I wasphysically fit before the pregnancy, it probably saved my life." Working with the founders of an Internet-based support group called "A Mother's Heart -- The foundation for mothers with big hearts," Meagher is getting involved and telling people her story. Using the website, www.amothersheart.org, and speaking at labor and delivery departments, she has begun educating patients about the disease.