It all started in 2014 when 12-year-old Brooklyn passed out during gym class, leading to a deeper evaluation and extensive testing to determine the cause.
The results revealed the source of her symptoms: two heart conditions.
“I was mad, scared, and upset. I didn’t fully understand why I wasn’t like everyone else my age,” says Brooklyn, now 23.
The two heart conditions are known as mixed cardiomyopathies, a combination of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and restrictive cardiomyopathy.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy causes abnormal thickening of the heart muscle, creating problems with blood flow, strokes, and other severe symptoms. Restrictive cardiomyopathy makes the walls of the heart extremely rigid, preventing the heart from properly stretching and filling with blood.
Combined, the two conditions greatly increased Brooklyn’s chance for sudden death.
Faced with the sobering diagnosis, the Soroka family turned to the experts at University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital for next-level care.
Although UI Health Care offered a closer option with local clinics in Des Moines, the family made the decision to regularly make the 250-mile round trip to Iowa City to stay closely connected with the team they trusted most.
“We would go to [UI Health Care’s] outreach clinic in Des Moines, but our appointments started becoming more frequent because we were starting to exhibit more signs and symptoms of heart failure,” Dana says. “Every experience we’ve had with [the cardiology team] has all been very pleasant.”
The frequent clinic visits and testing soon forced Brooklyn to drop out of her dance program and limit other forms of physical activity.
“I could no longer be a ‘normal’ teenager,” she says. “Any chance at playing sports or doing any type of physical activity was gone. From eighth grade to senior year of high school, I did an online PE class.”
Despite the frustration, the Soroka family continued to rely on the pediatric cardiology program at Stead Family Children’s Hospital, giving hope for a life full of making more memories and looking toward the future.