Health

Health: Patient's Holiday Wish

PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― In health, Medical Reporter Stephanie Stahl has details on patients spending the holiday season in a hospital bed and wishing for a gift money cannot buy.

It is supposed to be a joyous time of year, but thousands of people are hospitalized waiting for something more priceless and precious than any gift could ever be.

The sounds of the season filled the lobby at the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania Wednesday.

And while presents may top the list for many, 29-year-old Susan Mitchell wants something priceless -- a new heart.

"I couldn't breathe and I would pass out and it made me really sick," said Susan.

After years of thinking she had a common heart condition that wouldn't affect her life, Susan learned she had something much more serious, a very rare condition called Restrictive Cardiomyopathy.

"I couldn't continue to live the way I was living, it was just too hard," said Susan.

Cardiologist Lee Goldberg with Hospital of University of Pennsylvania said the condition ultimately leads to heart failure.

"The heart becomes very stiff and it's unable to relax, to accept the blood and then as the disease advances the heart becomes unable to squeeze as well," said Dr. Goldberg.

A transplant is Susan's only hope. So now she waits with family to support her along with her fiancé Fred who has his own holiday wish.

"Have Susan be healthy," said Fred Blavin.

She's thinking the holiday wish will be granted in the spirit of the season.

"This whole time of year seems so magical. And I honestly feel like because this is happening in this time of year that it's given me a sense of hope that I might not have had if this were happening in the bleak days of January," said Susan.

It all depends on finding the right donor. Susan is one of more than 5,000 people in the Philadelphia area waiting for an organ. It's the gift of life which could be especially meaningful this holiday season.

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