In July, 2020, Brenda Savage, 46, of Spruce Grove thought she had COVID-19.

She went to the Westview Health Centre in Stony Plain for a COVID test, but it came back negative. They gave her a second test. Same result. But her symptoms – fatigue, shortness of breath, a cough – persisted.

Further testing revealed that she had a condition called Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension – a thickening and narrowing of the arteries.

For Brenda, it meant that one side of her heart was larger than the other, and her heart and lungs were approaching failure.

Rushed to the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, Brenda spent four weeks in the cardiovascular intensive care unit, where she spent time on life support and in an induced coma.

Miraculously, doctors and healthcare teams at the Maz kept her alive without needing surgery.

She says of the teams of people who saved her, “I love them all. They are amazing. I cannot believe how fortunate we are to have this facility in Edmonton.”