How I Overcame My Heart Murmur Diagnosis

Caption: A stethoscope placed over an EKG reading.

All I can remember is the slowed sound of my footsteps and the slight trembling of my hands before my vision turned white and my body betrayed me. Then, there I was, a 12-year-old girl sitting next to an elderly woman. The strong scent of antiseptic and cleaning supplies filled the room, but it couldn’t distract me from the rapid pounding of my heart. My right leg bounced nervously as I felt eyes on me. “Aleksandra?” a nurse called out with kind eyes. This was my first trip to the ER, and I was trying to make sense of the flood of overwhelming questions, filled with phrases and words I had never heard of before. I signaled to my dad for help, but he wore a puzzled expression. Days later, we went to the cardiologist's office, where the rhythmic beeping of EKGs and the cold gel of ultrasounds mapped the chambers of my heart. Heart murmur, they said, and those words hung in the air with a weight I didn’t yet understand. 

But I should have understood. My family tree is roadmap of heart conditions: arrhythmia, heart attacks, hypertension, and high cholesterol. My family moved from Macedonia to the United States in the ‘90s for better opportunities and to seek refuge. But adapting to a new country meant adapting to the population’s way of life. High glucose and caloric intake, caffeine, and reduced exercise are all factors that contributed to the rise of heart disease in my family. My mom passed away from cardiac arrest in May 2022 after battling pancreatic cancer and high cholesterol. After receiving my own diagnosis, I felt compelled to advocate for heart health awareness.

That’s why I started the HeartHeritageProject (HHP), to make a difference and shine a light on heart disease. HHP has given me a platform to raise awareness about the importance of cardiovascular health. The main goal of HHP is to inspire young people to embrace healthy lifestyles that support a strong heart. HHP accomplishes this by addressing current heart issues affecting adolescents and acknowledging that family history is not a sentence, but an opportunity to prove heart disease wrong. We advocate for youth cardiovascular disease awareness by elevating patient stories on navigating heart health through podcast conversations, blog posts, and video interviews.