Alin Gragossian On Shock & A New Heart

Alin Gragossian was in the middle of her 3rd year as an Emergency Medicine resident when she became critically ill & required a heart transplant.  She joins us 10 weeks after surgery to discuss her extraordinary journey. I laughed the hardest and cried the most I ever have during a podcast. She’s a wonderful storyteller & this story is like no other.

Key Learnings

1. What it feels like to go into cardiogenic shock & think you’re about to die

2. Being in the prime of life, and then a cough starts…

3. In the ED, knowing something is very wrong and not wanting to accept it

4. The experience of having doctors she knew and worked with and how she wanted the communication to work

5. Living like an anaerobe

6. Being “lined up”

7. Learning there’s a heart for her and actually going to the OR for transplant

8.  High-fives to Linda

9. What it feels like to breathe and to walk again

10. How a near-death experience changed how she looks at life & showed how much a human being can overcome

Links

Alin’s Twitter feed: @ag_em33

Alin’s blog: www.achangeofhe.art.com

#heart, #hearttransplant, #shock, #toughness, #podcast, #medicine