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Misdiagnosed: Meet Audrey

A Woman’s Issue · September 2025

Heart palpitations · Breathlessness · Tiredness · Anxiety

OR

Does her mitral valve need replacing?

When It Started

Hi! My name’s Audrey.

When I was about 26, I started to have really bad “anxiety.” I’d notice heart palpitations and episodes of breathlessness.

I’d walk my dog and would just feel so winded. I grew increasingly more tired as time went on.

I scheduled so many different appointments with my PCP. I eventually started feeling bad enough to begin going to the emergency room. I can’t count how many times I’ve gone.

I thought I had asthma or something and wasn’t being taken seriously.

I kept getting told it was just anxiety and eventually gaslit myself into seeing a psychiatrist and getting put on anxiety medication.

But my episodes of breathlessness persisted, and I continued feeling worse and worse as the months progressed.

I actually got strep throat and, as luck would have it, it traveled to my heart.

The strep throat really aggravated the prolapse and regurgitation. I had endocarditis for a month or so and didn’t know it.

At this point, I didn’t go to the doctor. I didn’t go to the hospital.

I had accepted that they were just going to tell me it was anxiety again.

When My Heart Began to Fail

One night I woke up to a coughing spell.

I couldn’t breathe.

I thought I was definitely having an asthma attack and was desperate enough to finally go back to the hospital. I drove myself to the hospital while blacking out.

When I got there, my blood oxygen was at about 83 and dropped to about 56% before being placed on ECMO.

The mitral valve had completely torn, and my heart was pumping blood into my lungs.

I was drowning.

In the morning, after being on ECMO all night, they finally did an echocardiogram—the first one I had ever gotten.

They did an emergency mitral valve replacement as well as bypass surgery, along with an ablation.

I was 28.

Anxiety—or Something More?

Sometimes it is just anxiety. Our anxiety lies to us and tells us something is wrong when there isn’t anything actually going on.

But sometimes it’s not a lie.

It’s your body telling you something is wrong.

At my core, I knew something was seriously wrong with me, and I just needed someone to take me seriously and help me.

My Advice

My advice to anyone reading this is: if, in your soul, you absolutely know something is not right with you or your body, listen to it.

Be your own advocate.

Be persistent. Be annoying. I wish I tried harder before. I gave up. It almost cost me my life.

Audrey Has:

• Mitral valve regurgitation
• Mitral valve prolapse
• Endocarditis
• Bilateral pleural effusion
• Atrial fibrillation
• Mitral valve replacement surgery

Connect with her on Instagram: @jeneevaho