I’m Aware That I’m Rare: Evelyn Melendez (254)

The phaware® interview

Pulmonary hypertension patient Evelyn Melendez discussed being diagnosed as a teenager. She details how she came to terms with not being able to become pregnant due to her PH and how she deals with depression and anxiety.

My name is Evelyn Melendez, and I’m a pulmonary hypertension patient. It’s 14 years since I’ve been diagnosed. I was 15 at the time and didn’t know that I had all the symptoms in front of me.

Blue lips, I couldn’t gain weight, I couldn’t walk to my locker to the gym room. I didn’t feel good one day, so the nurse took me home. I went to sleep, I got real sweaty, told my mom I didn’t feel good. The next thing I realize, I’m on the floor, and she’s crying. She saved my life, pretty much, gave me CPR. I had passed out in heart failure. So I went to two different hospitals before I was sent to Children’s Hospital Philadelphia, where doctors kind of knew what I had, but they weren’t sure. So they told me like, “We think you have this lung disease, but we’re not sure until we do a heart catheterization.” At that point…