Survivor raises awareness for women’s heart health

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW)- The American Heart Association says nearly 45% of women 20 or older are living with some type of heart disease. Less than half of pregnant women have good heart health.

Krystle Brevik’s journey with heart health began when she was born and diagnosed with a heart murmur. But it was when she was pregnant with her daughter that things got more serious.

“Pregnancy was hard because of course my heart had to work harder to support her,” Brevik said.

When she was eight weeks pregnant, she learned she’d been living with multiple heart conditions.

“A bicuspid aortic valve is instead of three chambers in my aorta I have two chambers. So it’s stenosing which is calcifying and getting hard. And the flap also now doesn’t close all the way so the blood’s going back into the heart instead of closing and staying out. So it regurgitates,” Brevik said.

Brevik has to be careful in her daily activities to not put herself under too much stress.

“I try to rest more because I know that I need it more than a lot of people need it,” Brevik said.

She gets regular checkups and might eventually need heart surgery. She says it’s important to lead a healthy lifestyle and wants to share that message with other women and her own daughter Braelyn.

“I like to eat stuff that’s healthy to make my heart healthy,” Braelyn said.

“It made me realize I need to live life to the fullest and it does worry me a lot because I don’t want to leave my child as a child. I want to grow old and be able to watch her have children,” Brevik said.

Krystle’s conditions are genetic but her daughter was tested as a baby and has a healthy heart.