I had a friend in California who died at age 34 of congestive heart failure secondary to a congenital heart disease called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. My friend had known since high school that she had the disease. Her doctors recommended that she not have children because they were likely to inherit the disease and because pregnancy would probably kill her. She had one child, and thence began her downhill struggles. Her doctors continued to warn her that she should not have any more children. She had a second child and just six years later she died of congestive heart failure. It wasn't fast, and it wasn't pretty.
I was very close to her children, but have since moved away. The children moved away, too. After their mother died, the oldest boy, whose biological father died before he was born, went to live with a maternal uncle in Nevada. The younger boy, who had a different father, went to live with his biological father. I've lost touch with the younger boy, but yesterday I got this email from the older one:
"How are you? Haven’t talked to you in awhile. And I was looking at my emails and decided to write you. And wanted to tell you that I graduated finally and I’m doing okay and that I will be doing great after friday, cuz I’m getting surgery. It’s not major I’m just getting a pacemacker/dephibulater. I wont be going into the Marine Corps anymore cuz they wont accept me. And I have what mom haved Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy/HCM. Hope to hear from you soon."
Getting a pacemaker at 18 is, in fact, major.
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