My name is Allison McCruel. I am 42 years old and was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension (PH) at the age of 28. PH is very rare and is high blood pressure in the lungs that overworks the heart, eventually causing heart failure and death. It usually hits between the ages of 20 to 40 and most cases of PH are women.
In the beginning of 1995, I used to pass out, couldn't breathe, and suffered from dizziness and seizures. No one could figure out what was wrong with me. I was finally diagnosed the end of 1995 and found that there was no cure for PH. Each day I was fighting just to breathe.
In April of 1996, I went back to the hospital, but they sent me back home because there was nothing they could do for me. I was told I had just two months to live. When I got home I was so scared - I remember dropping to my knees and saying, "I refuse to die - I have a daughter with cerebral palsy and mental retardation and is wheelchair bound who needs me."
I got up off my knees and decided death is not an option for me. Those eight weeks were agonizing. Then exactly eight weeks later, I got a phone call from a Metrohealth doctor. He told me there was an experimental drug that just came to the states for PH. I was turning purple at the time and was brought in to try the drug on an ambulance.
When I got to the emergency room, they placed a hickman in my chest. I was made no promises about the drug but believed it was my miracle. The rug was distributed through the hickman and, in six seconds, I could breath again!!
I was one of the lucky ones - 13 years later there are several drugs for PH and 13 years later I am still here and doing well. I have a pickline to distribute another drug for PH. There is no cure for PH but we have some promising drugs now that weren't available 13 years ago. I'm not sure how I got PH but I am so thankful that at the very last moment, the doctors at MetroHealth saved my life!