Lucy Smith, 23, from Dumfries and Galloway, thought she was burnt out from working long hours as a carer when in reality she was suffering from a life-threatening condition
A young woman needed a heart transplant as a teenager after suffering an ‘anxiety attack’ that left her collapsed on a hospital bathroom floor.
Lucy Smith, from Annan in Dumfries and Galloway, was 19 when her heart first began abnormally racing before nights out. She soon started to experience symptoms every day – which she believed were related to working long hours as a carer after going to see her GP.
Following three years of battling these uncomfortable feelings inside her, Lucy, now 23, was taken to Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary in April last year with severe, shooting chest pains, reports the Daily Record. She was prescribed a beta-blocker but later passed out in the hospital toilet.
Medics rushed to carry out scans on Lucy, which revealed she had suffered a severe heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy – a genetic condition she has most likely had since birth that can be life-threatening if left untreated. Lucy told the publication: “At the time, I was working 12 hour shifts at the care home then spending my days off in bed because I was so tired.
“My fatigue was terrible and my heart was racing. I thought it was anxiety and stress but it got progressively worse and I was getting shooting pains up my torso.
“Then I was in so much pain that my mum took me to A&E. After I collapsed in the bathroom, my life changed forever.” Lucy spent the next nine weeks in the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Glasgow and had a transplant after medication and a balloon pump failed to save her heart.
She continued: “I had never been in hospital before so it was surreal to be laying in the intensive care unit being told I may not survive. I still have horrible flashbacks and have to ask my mum if that really happened or if it’s just a nightmare.”
A week after the major operation, her family was told to prepare to lose Lucy as her body was showing signs of rejecting the new organ. But she pulled through and was released from hospital two months later.
She added: “At first I was struggling to come off my life support. My body wasn’t taking to my heart. But then my doctor said it started like a ‘Rolls Royce’ engine before beating on its own.”
Since her operation Lucy has met many other young people with heart conditions and now wants to raise awareness. She said: “Looking back now, none of my symptoms were normal or caused by anxiety. That’s why I want to make other young people aware.
“I now recognise I was showing signs of heart failure so I want to encourage people not to put these feelings down to anxiety – because I never expected to be recovering from a heart transplant at 23.”