In August of 2025, senior Macey Brown received news that her heart was in Atrial Flutter, meaning her heartbeat was very irregular and beating much faster than normal. Brown was admitted to the hospital for a total of 10 days with the goal of bringing her out of heart failure. With new amounts of medicine, Brown said that she was released from the hospital shortly after.
“I went in [to the hospital] for 10 days, and they got me a bunch of new [medicines] to hopefully bring up my heart, because it was in failure,” Brown said.
As a result of her medicines, Brown came down with a tick virus called Ehrilchia, a rare virus that causes high fevers, muscle aches, fatigue, chills and nausea. This condition is so rare that it only has 2,000 reported cases in the country today.
“I ended up getting a tick virus that caused [me to get] a really high fever, that also sparked the fact that my heart failure was not going to get better,” Brown said.
Brown’s condition is titled “Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome” meaning that when Brown was born, the left side of her heart was underdeveloped and had little to no blood flow. Along with that, Brown had also been suffering from kidney failure.
After finding out about a match for both organs on Oct. 28, being the first patient in Missouri to experience this, as well as for the first time at the Saint Louis Children’s Hospital, Brown underwent an intense heart transplant surgery at 3:00 P.M. on Oct. 30. After the procedure was over, she was taken back to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital for several hours. At 6:00 A.M. On Oct. 31, while still under anesthesia, Brown was taken back up to the procedure room where they performed a kidney transplant.
With many hours of physical therapy before and after the procedure, Brown remained positive and optimistic for her future. Before the procedure, Brown did daily occupational and physical therapy every day leading up to the transplant to help maintain strength. The exercises included small arm movements, sitting up, laying down, walking for certain distances, and going up and down stairs. During these sessions, Brown said she would have to test her strength.
“I had to do these six minute walk tests, I would walk around the unit for six minutes and you would see how far you’d get, and you would have to progress farther every time,” Brown said.
Despite the immense physical and emotional challenges Brown has faced, she has remained hopeful through the guidance and support from the Fenton community. Relying on her physical therapy, Brown made a goal to stay on top of her exercises so she could be released from the hospital before the holiday season.
“My goal was to get out before Thanksgiving, I made it my point to do [physical therapy], because it’s only going to benefit me. If I don’t do it, it’s only going to affect me negatively. It actually paid off. I was able to get a lot of my strength back quicker than I thought I would,” Brown said.
Brown was in recovery at the hospital for a total of 54 days, and was released on Nov. 26 With the support of Brown’s friends, family, and the medical staff at Saint Louis Children’s Hospital, she was able to continue doing the things she loved with the people she loved.
“I was in the hospital during Dancing With The Stars. I had a pyramid [of my favorite contestants] in my room with my child life specialist. Those are my favorite moments, because you can tell the staff actually cares about you,” Brown said.
With the support from everyone around her, Brown had much support from her friends who helped her through the surgery and recovery.
“I talk to [my friends about] what’s going on, and cheer. They also act normal towards me which I appreciated. [They didn’t] baby me, or pity me. They acted like everything was fine, and yes, I had this surgery, but I’m still me,” Brown said.
With the effects of Brown’s condition, it made her ability to participate in her sport very difficult. Due to the chemotherapy and intense care she underwent, Brown could not stunt in cheer or do anything that could cause the tube that connects to her heart to move or even break. Even now, after the procedures and recovery, Brown is not permitted to participate in her sport.
Brown’s journey has been anything but easy, but creating memories she will never forget, giving meaningful gifts, and decorating her room made everything more tolerable. Brown said that she has been surrounded by so much love and support throughout her journey.
“My nurses all on the floor, my occupational therapist, my child life specialist, my physical therapist, got me an ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go’ [by Dr. Seuss] book. I’ve never had one of those before. All of them were writing notes in it, and I loved it,” Brown said.
Additionally, being optimistic about her future, Brown hopes to stay supporting her cheer team, performing or not. Along with the hope to pursue nursing in college following the inspiration of the staff at Saint Louis Children’s Hospital who helped to take care of her.
Looking ahead to summer and graduation, Brown hopes to be able to continue helping out at Camp Rhythm, a camp for kids with heart defects that she has assisted at in the past.
Brown’s journey has helped to remind the Fenton community that through determination, and support, anything is possible.
