Hillary Steffen first experienced the symptoms of heart failure in late 2021 at the age of 33.

“I was a young, active mother,” she said.

Steffen’s children were 7, 4 and 7 months old at the time. COVID-19 went through the house, and Steffen woke up with a fever and extreme fatigue that wouldn’t break over several days.

“I couldn’t do anything, which was challenging,” she said. “I was nursing my 7-month-old. By Friday, I had developed mastitis. Then, I lost my smell and taste, so I thought I must have COVID.”

Ongoing symptoms

On Saturday, Steffen woke up in the middle of the night.

“My arms were tingling and numb down to my fingers, and I felt super nauseous,” she said. “The numbness would last a minute or less and then go away. My husband asked if I was breathing okay because he noticed my lips were blue. I told him I was breathing just fine, but I was hungry. He went downstairs and got me a snack. I took a couple of bites of some apples and peanut butter and then I went back to sleep.”

Connecting to care at Salem Hospital

Those episodes continued over the next day, and later in the day, Steffen started vomiting. Her husband is a firefighter and paramedic. He gave her two liters of IV fluid from home. When her symptoms didn’t change, she called for a transport to the Emergency Department at Salem Hospital.

At that point, Steffen got an additional 2.5 liters of fluid to address dehydration.

“I started to balloon and fill up with fluid,” she said. “I started having sepsis mottling on my legs and chest. I was in and out of consciousness. At some point my husband met us in the ED. I don’t know how many hours I was there. A nurse there really advocated to get me to the ICU.”

Once Steffen arrived at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), she got an echocardiogram and learned her ejection fraction — a measure of how the heart pumps — was less than 10%.

A shocking diagnosis

“The cardiologist told me I was suffering from acute heart failure. My husband thought they must have the wrong patient,’” she said. “My diagnosis was acute viral myocarditis.”

Steffen received a heart catheterization, the fluid was drained around her heart and an Impella pump was put in. She was then transferred to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, where she stayed for two more weeks before the pump was removed.

During recovery, Steffen was contacted by the manufacturing company, Abiomed. They connected her with another Impella patient and invited Steffen to share her story with their company in Massachusetts.

Steffen started sharing her story on social media to bring more awareness but to also hopefully help someone else who went through a similar experience.

Sharing her story with the world

“I knew I wasn’t the first person, and I wouldn’t be the last, so I wanted to provide hope to other people who went through something like me because I wanted them to know they weren’t alone and I wanted them to see that full heart recovery was possible,” Steffen said.

During that time, Steffen went through Salem Health’s cardiac rehabilitation program.

“Cardiac rehab helped give me the confidence that I needed to be able to exercise on my own again,” she said.

Deana Wyland is the lead exercise specialist who worked with Steffen as she went through cardiac rehab.

“Hillary was very passionate about returning to an active and healthy life, so her motivation helped to drive her progress,” said Wyland. “Our team of nurses and exercise specialists worked together to guide her in the safest and most effective way possible. Hillary's hard work and determination also helped to motivate the patients who were in cardiac rehab with her.”

Making people feel heard

As her confidence grew, Steffen decided to start a podcast called Heart Talk with Hillary, where people who experienced heart failure or transplants come on to share their story.

Amanda Griffith is the nurse manager for the Salem Health Cardiovascular Care Unit. Griffith said Steffen has become much more than a patient through her advocacy.

“She has become a source of inspiration for our team,” she said. “Through her willingness to share her experience with cardiogenic shock, she reminds our providers and nursing staff of the profound impact we have on the lives of those we serve. What a gift she is to this world.”

Steffen said she’s grateful to help other people by sharing her story.

“It’s incredibly rare what I experienced,” she said. “I don’t want to scare people, I just want to bring awareness so that people know the signs and symptoms to look for and can seek help immediately."

Your path to cardiac care

From heart attacks and high blood pressure to heart disease and failure — we’re here to address your cardiology concerns at Salem Health. Learn more about our team and the steps we can take to get your health back on track.