When Wendy Meadows first arrived at the Bon Secours St. Francis Emergency Room, she knew something was not right. After a CAT scan and an echocardiogram, doctors discovered her heart was slowly failing. That was the beginning of Wendy’s transformation that donors helped make possible.

“When I tried to lay down, I felt like I was drowning,” Wendy says. “I thought that I had pneumonia or bronchitis. Turns out, my heart was enlarged. I had fluid in my lungs, around my heart. And my heart was only working at 9 percent.”

Doctors weren’t sure she would make it through the night, let alone be swimming and kayaking just over a year later.

Wendy underwent two procedures that changed her life. She had an ICD (dual pacemaker and defibrillator) and a CCM implant. Together, these devices gave her heart the support it needed. Today, her ejection fraction has risen to 40 percent. She has lost more than 20 pounds and can walk nearly two miles at a time.

“I can do everything I used to do before I got sick,” Wendy says, holding back tears. “If it wasn’t for the cardiac team at St. Francis, I wouldn’t be here. They saved my life.”

Donor generosity helps make stories like Wendy’s possible. Gifts to the Carpenter Heart Fund support advanced cardiac technology, patient and family programs, and education for the staff at the William L. Carpenter Heart Center. Wendy is deeply grateful to her care team at St. Francis.

“I love them so much, and I thank them every day,” she says. “I was pretty close to death. Now I’m alive, raising my grandbaby.”