Back in September, Vang complained about having trouble breathing and sleeping. As it turns out, she was seriously ill. A new mother gave birth to her first child this week months after her heart failed during pregnancy. She was pretty sick, Dr. Richard Ha, chief of cardiac surgery at Kaiser Santa Clara, said. She came from our Kaiser Sacramento program. She was brought here because she was in acute heart failure. Her heart was functioning at about 20%. Normally, people function at 65%.
Vang was given medications, which helped a bit, but her condition continued to worsen over time.
Ha said Vang had myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, which eventually led to her heart failure.