Her heart keeps pumping, with help of device
Lupe Valencia needs the help of a left ventricular assist device.
“I had heart surgery about eight years ago and I just kept working and working and working. Then I had a stroke. Last May I started getting real sick. I couldn’t breathe, so they rushed me to the hospital.
“I had congestive heart failure. I was in the hospital two weeks, then I got sick again. I thought it was my last days. I even talked to a priest. I apologized to everybody I could think of who I had done something wrong to.
“Then they moved me to a hospital in Houston. When I woke up, it took me more than two weeks to actually realize what they had put inside of me. This mechanical pump goes into my heart and makes the blood flow all over my body. My kids were the ones who decided to have this done for me, because the doctors said I wasn’t going to make it. It’s heavy, but it’s what keeps me going.”
— Lupe Valencia
(Update: Lupe passed away in December 2017.)
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