Expert medical staff help young woman overcome a life-threatening diagnosis and heart failure
Stephani Brockmann, an active 30-year-old wife and mother of a toddler, never worried about her risk of severe illness.
“I have always maintained a pretty healthy lifestyle. I eat healthy and workout often,” Brockmann said. “My husband Kale and I regularly go to Colorado to hike ‘Fourteeners’ – which are 14,000-foot peaks. Most of our hobbies include some sort of outdoor activity. Something like what happened to me was never on my radar.”
On Veteran’s Day in 2020, Brockmann thought she might be coming down with the flu or COVID-19. She had a sore throat and felt fatigued – her symptoms escalated quickly. By the time she drove to a COVID-19 testing site, Brockmann was too tired and weak to leave her car for the test.
Brockmann’s symptoms, which now included vomiting and loss of consciousness, prompted her husband to take her to a local emergency room. At first, she was turned away by medical staff who thought she had COVID-19 and could recover at home.
After a second visit to an emergency room the following day, doctors re-evaluated and diagnosed Brockmann with two major bacterial infections: methicillin-susceptible staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) and bacterial meningitis. The infections had caused sepsis and endocarditis, an inflammation of the inner lining of the heart’s chambers and valves.
Doctors used a powerful set of antibiotics to treat Brockmann’s two bacterial infections, but the damage done to her heart led the family to seek care at M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center.
A life-saving surgery and a heartfelt choice
“Endocarditis is not a common diagnosis, and it is life-threatening,” said M Health Fairview Cardiothoracic Surgeon Rochus Voeller, MD. “One of the complications with endocarditis is that it can lead to devastating strokes.”
In addition to suffering inflammation and several mini-strokes, Brockmann sustained damage to her mitral valve, which is a valve connecting two chambers of the heart. It would need to be replaced through a minimally invasive surgery.
There are two options for mitral valve replacement surgery: a mechanical valve or a biological valve. For young people like Brockmann, doctors typically recommend using a mechanical valve, which generally lasts a person’s lifetime.
“My goal with the surgery was to first save her life and prevent her from having recurrent strokes,”” Voeller said. “But a big part of this was Stephani’s goals.”
For Brockmann, the choice wasn’t only about the lifespan of a replacement valve. “I’ve always wanted to have more kids,” she said. “A mechanical valve requires you to be on blood thinners for life, which can complicate pregnancy.”
Brockmann chose to move forward with a biological valve replacement so she could have a better shot at having the family she always dreamed of. This decision may require future surgery to replace her valve, but she is excited for the possibilities it offers. In the immediate future, she and her family are focused on her climb back toward recovery.
“We need to focus on getting your heart better”
In a healthy human heart, between 55 and 70 percent of the blood contained in the heart is pumped out of the heart with each heartbeat. Even after surgery, Stephani’s was only pumping around 30 to 40 percent, indicating heart failure.
“It was devastating. That’s just not something you expect to hear when you’re 30,” Brockmann said.
“When Stephani first came to me, her heart function was not normal,” said M Health Fairview Cardiologist Cindy Martin, MD. Martin works with heart failure patients who are seeking to get pregnant after their diagnosis. “My first conversation with Stephani was: ‘we need to focus on getting your heart better.’”
“During pregnancy, the heart is working double time to support both the mother and the child. It’s the equivalent of running on a treadmill for three months straight,” Martin said.
Though Brockmann was being effectively treated with medication, many medications used to treat heart failure cannot be used during pregnancy because of the risks they pose to the developing fetus. After 11 months of monitoring, medication, and cardiac therapy, Brockmann’s heart function had normalized enough that Martin agreed she could stop her heart failure medications. Brockmann and her husband Kale were finally cleared to grow their family once more.
“The easy route would have been to say, ‘Don’t get pregnant’,” Martin said. “But working with patients to help them achieve important goals is very rewarding.”
Welcoming a child in 2022
Despite the challenges brought by the diagnosis, the Brockmanns still have plenty to celebrate: They are expecting their second child in 2022.
“It feels like we have reached the goal we’d been striving for the entire time,” said Brockmann, smiling. “It’s been a long journey, but we are finally seeing the light and we are extremely thankful for the comfort, care, and hope from the M Health staff along the way.”
Brockmann will be carefully monitored throughout her pregnancy to ensure both mom and baby are safe.
“If there’s anything that going through a health crisis like this really teaches you, it’s where to focus your time and energy,” Brockmann said. "For me, that’s my faith, family, and mindset.”
