From heart failure to heart function: Jennifer’s story

May 7, 2024
Since she was diagnosed with heart failure, Jennifer tries to live her best life everyday. She and her husband Bob enjoyed a holiday in Mazatlan in 2023.

Jennifer Monaghan was a healthy, active stay-at-home mom when she was diagnosed with a heart condition.

“I came downstairs one night after tucking my daughter in, and no words would come out,” she recalls. Her husband recognized immediately that she was having a stroke.

After being admitted to Kelowna General Hospital, she started to undergo a lengthy series of tests. It was in the course of testing that doctors discovered she had cardiomyopathy, a dysfunction of her heart. Jennifer would go on to spend a month in the hospital in rehabilitation and would later attend KGH’s Heart Function Clinic. “That was the beginning of my health journey,” says Jennifer. She was 43 years old at the time.

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