Disorder Mistaken For Asthma

  

January 4, 2007 (WPVI) -- Faster diagnosis, and amazing medications are giving those with a potentially deadly disorder their lives back.

You'd never know it, but Patty Farrow and Alethea Pergament aren't supposed to be alive now.

4 years ago, each was in crisis.

Alethea, then a 28-year-old mother in Mantua, New Jersey, had been sick for weeks, with what doctors first thought was the flu... Then meningitis... Then pneumonia.

"I was passing out every time I walked a few feet."

She was barely alive when she got to the hospital.

"Had I waited an hour more to get to the emergency room, I wouldn't be here today."

After several rounds of tests, doctors discovered pulmonary hypertension - a life-threatening high blood pressure in her lungs.

Meantime, Patty, a 45-year-old mother and grandmother in Paulsboro, New Jersey, was hospitalized for heart trouble. Doctors had found a viral infection in the sac around her heart.

They also found a hole between the chambers, and were doing tests prior to an operation to fix it when they discovered startlingly high blood pressure in her lungs. They decided to leave the hole alone, as a relief valve.

And at the time each was diagnosed, they were told they didn't have long to live. Patty, "He had told me if things went well, I may have 2 more years."

Primary pulmonary hypertension causes high blood pressure in the lungs, due to narrowing and stiffening of the blood vessels that connect the heart to the lungs.

That high blood pressure puts extra stress on the heart & lungs, often triggering heart failure.

It happens primarily in people 20 to 40 years of age - and more often, in women.

The symptoms - shortness of breath, fatigue, dizzy spells & fainting, and swollen legs and ankles, have been mistaken for asthma, allergies, exhaustion, or just being out of shape.

So how have these women managed to survive?

Dr. Harold Palevsky, of Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, says treating pulmonary hypertension has undergone a revolution in the past few years.

"There is no question we have altered the natural history of the condition.We now have medicines in 3 different families of drugs, administered either by continuous infusion a pill, or by nebulizer."

Alethea wears a pump that continuously sends medicine into her heart.

"Most people don't even notice it." And it hasn't stopped her from attending all of her daughter's school events, nor has she given up her regular trips to cheer on the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Alethea admits she was concerned the activities of other fans would lead to trouble with her pump.

And fortunately, there are even more new treatments for this debilitating disease in the research pipeline.

Get more News »

• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•