After being dealt a triple blow, a Surrey, B.C. woman has become a beacon of light for others facing similar struggles in life.
It all started in March 2010, when Chantal Smyth and her husband Jackson were about to have a baby.
A day after her due date, Chantal woke up and was alarmed. She wasn’t feeling their daughter kick anymore. “I knew right away something was wrong… I thought, like my entire world ended. (Our) dreams ended,” Chantal told Global National‘s Robin Gill.
Chantal had an ultrasound performed, which showed the baby had no heartbeat. She screamed.
“I had dreams before…and I had a dream I would never get to meet her. I had a dream that she had actually passed away,” she recalled.
As Chantal mourned her loss, she felt an intense pain in her chest and back. It was so bad, she couldn’t breathe.
She thought it was grief, and doctors did too initially, but they later discovered it was something worse – an aortic dissection. The layers around Chantal’s heart were torn. She needed surgery immediately – or she was going to die.
Having just lost their baby, Jackson was fearing he was now going to lose his wife. “My initial reaction obviously was just shock,” he said.
“I just knew I had to be there for Chantal.”
Doctors and nurses at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, B.C. were desperate to save her. “Two surgeons were involved. Lots of people in the hospital were very involved. And all were anxious and worried about her,” cardiologist Dr. Amin Aminbakhsh said.
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According to him, Chantal only had a 20 per cent chance of surviving.
Fortunately, the surgery was a success. Doctors later said that if she had given birth to her baby as first expected, Chantal would have died. They ended performing a C-section, and discovered the baby died after the umbilical cord had wrapped around her throat twice.
After all this, Chantal was finally able to say goodbye to her daughter, named Sunshine.
Chantal was then dealt another blow. Doctors told the then-31-year-old she shouldn’t get pregnant again because of her heart condition.
She had a difficult time coping with the devastating news. Due to her heart condition, a rise in blood pressure could prove fatal. She was forced to remain calm.
Eventually, Chantal decided the only way she was going to get better – was to help others.
Once she recovered from surgery, Chantal returned to the hospital that helped her. Her sincerity brings comfort and support to other heart patients, before and after their surgery. She says it helps her heal, and hopes it heals the patients as well.
“You find comfort in strangers,” she said.
Mike Martin of the Pacific Open Heart Association, which organizes the volunteering at Royal Columbian Hospital, admits he was initially hesitant about Chantal’s idea. “I was a little bit worried that considering she’s gone through more than what most of the patients have gone through, it might be hard for her, for it to be a positive visit.”
But he was sold after having a half-hour conversation with Chantal.
“Then we heard all her visits are positive,” Martin said.
The nurses agree, saying Chantal is a valuable asset to the hospital. “She offers a unique gift of hope and encouragement to our patients,” Anna Pacholski said.
“They feel stressful and fearful of surgery, and then she talks to them, and they see how wonderful she’s done after surgery. I think it’s very beneficial to our patients.”
Aminbakhsh also concurs. Chantal’s positive attitude makes a world of difference in helping take care of other people. “She teaches patients that having a cardiac condition isn’t the end of the world and they can recover.”
And patients, such as Bill Stevenson, are in awe that someone as young as Chantal has gone through so much. “It’s nice to come in, and you can see the results of what they’ve gone through, and what you can expect.”
But no one is in more awe than the man who has been at Chantal’s side for nearly a decade. “It’s a heartbreaking story, and just the fact that she has come through is amazing,” said a proud Jackson.
Chantal believes what saved her is their daughter. “I always see the hero in our story as our daughter Sunshine, because everything happened from losing her, and the happiest I’ve ever been was when I was pregnant with her, and then of course, the saddest I ever was, was when we lost her. And now I’m finding happiness again.”
“She saved my life. She continues to save my life.”
Chantal has had a second surgery to remove another aneurysm.
She has been told she can live a normal life, but that her aorta could tear at anytime. Her condition must be monitored on a day-to-day basis.
Chantal and Jackson are now in the process of adopting a child.
Follow Robin on Twitter: @Robin_Global
With a file from the Vancouver Sun
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