Her deadly diagnosis made pregnancy risky. But this Houston woman took the leap.
Brooke Garcia was 27 weeks pregnant when she arrived at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. As an intensive care unit and ER nurse at a hospital in her hometown of Beeville, she knew the warning signs of pulmonary arterial hypertension – high blood pressure in the vessels leading from the heart to the lungs, which can later cause cardiac arrest.
After some genetic testing, Garcia discovered she carried BMPR2, a gene mutation that likely caused her pulmonary arterial hypertension diagnosis.
“Immediately she got an ultrasound,” Dr. Bindu Akkanti, associate professor and pulmonologist at UTHealth Houston Heart & Vascular and Memorial Hermann recalled. “It was very evident how much worse it was. It was to the point where she had signs of right heart failure.” Garcia’s liver was also affected.
Akkanti was well aware that as the pregnancy progressed, Garcia’s condition could decline.
“We knew that the baby was going to put more strain on her heart,” Akkanti said. “We sat down and explained how dangerous this could be.”
Garcia needed to stay at Memorial Hermann until delivery. She was placed on medication to build up her heart strength – and to lower her elevated pulmonary pressures.
In the meantime, a team of caregivers was assembled from UTHealth Houston Heart and Vascular and Memorial Hermann. Akkanti was joined by cardiologists Dr. Maria Patarroyo and Dr. Sukhdeep Basra, cardiothoracic and vascular surgeon Dr. Ismael Salas, maternal fetal specialist Dr. Sean Blackwell and obstetric anesthesiologist Dr. Barbara Orlando, as well as Dr. Yafen Liang with cardiovascular anesthesia.
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Published via the Houston Chronicle