Heart Talk with Hillary

Send us Fan Mail I know I’ve said this before but today’s episode is a really special one. I had the honor of talking with Mike Minogue — the former CEO of Abiomed — a company that quite literally changed the course of my life. Mike and I first met in 2022, shortly after my recovery from heart failure, when I was invited to visit Abiomed’s headquarters in Danvers, Massachusetts. I was immediately...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s episode is one that will truly make you pause and reflect on what is important to you in your life. I’m joined by Georgiana, whose story is as powerful as it is eye-opening. She was the picture of health—active and strong, even competing in the Senior Olympics—when her life took an unexpected turn. Out of nowhere, she was fighting for her life battling acute viral myocardi...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s guest is Layne Strookman — a young wife, mother, and Nurse Practitioner. Despite her medical background, there was one condition she had never even heard of until the day it happened to her. Layne was the picture of health. She was a collegiate athlete, a marathon runner, and someone who truly prioritized her wellness. But her life took a sudden and unexpected turn when sh...

Send us Fan Mail Today I am joined by Chelsea Hayes — a young wife and mother — who experienced a sudden and terrifying medical emergency that completely turned her world upside down. What began unexpectedly soon led to a diagnosis of acute viral lymphocytic myocarditis… a form of viral myocarditis that, even after my own journey with heart failure, I had not yet learned about. In this conversatio...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s episode is a really special one, because I’m sitting down with a young woman named Allie—who actually found me on Instagram and reached out to share her story. And when I read her message, I was struck by how similar her journey was to mine. Allie was young, healthy, and had no prior health conditions. But after getting sick, her health declined rapidly. Thankfully, her pa...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s episode is one I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Arjun Chagarlamudi , the very first cardiologist who ever took care of me — during the most critical 36 hours of my life at Salem Hospital. I only got to follow-up with him one time after the hospital so I was really excited to get to have this time with him. Dr. Chagarl...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back for SEASON 4! I can’t imagine a more meaningful way to begin this new season than with today’s episode, especially as Grey’s Anatomy also returns with a storyline depicting a main character being diagnosed with the exact same condition as our guest.  Today, I’m joined by Casey Gould , a heart failure survivor who experienced peripartum (also called postpartum) cardiom...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s episode is incredibly special to me — because my guest isn’t just a renowned cardiologist… he was my cardiologist. I had the honor of interviewing Dr. Jacob Abraham, who cared for me during some of the most critical moments of my life and advocated greatly for me. He helped manage my care in the hospital and then continued to walk alongside me in the months and years that...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode you will hear from an incredible woman named Tara Benoit. Tara is a former fitness competitor who was in the greatest shape of her life when she suffered the unexpected, a SCAD heart attack. SCAD stands for Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection and has also been dubbed the healthy woman’s heart attack. I previously interviewed another SCAD survivor in April of...

Send us Fan Mail Today's episode is Part 2 of a 2 Part series. So if you haven't already listened to Part 1 please go back and listen to that one first. In this episode, Katy and her husband, Aaron walk us through her entire heart transplant journey. From spending 5 weeks in the CICU to being discharged while still on the transplant list, then getting the call and even post-transplant li...

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes life brings people into your path in ways that feel nothing short of divine and that is the case for today’s guests. I’ll never forget when I first heard about Katy Coski. Her sister, Karley reached out to me over social media, telling me that it sounded like her sister was going through exactly what I had been through. I was stunned to learn that not only did Karlee liv...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s guest is my friend, Lauryn Sousa. She’s a young, active preschool teacher from Rhode Island whose life took a terrifying turn earlier this year after she contracted the flu. What started as a common illness quickly spiraled into a life-threatening emergency. Lauryn lives alone, and navigating the early symptoms on her own was incredibly scary. Thankfully Lauryn made it to...

Send us Fan Mail Today, I’m honored to share the incredible journey of Salina — a woman whose story is filled with strength, unexpected turns, and undeniable miracles. Salina was diagnosed with cancer at 14 years old, and while she bravely made it through treatment during her high school years, the chemotherapy drug was so strong that it weakened her heart muscle eventually leading to heart failur...

Send us Fan Mail In the past, you’ve heard powerful stories from heart failure survivors and their caregivers—but today, we’re hearing from someone who has played a very different role in the fight to save lives from heart failure. This is someone extremely near and dear to my heart. Truthfully I don’t think I’d be alive today if it weren’t for this man, Dr. Thorsten Siess, the inventor of the Imp...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode you’ll get to hear from Fano and Francesca, the proud parents of a beautiful 4yr old girl named, Sienna. Sienna was born with HLHS which stands for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. HLHS causes the left side of the heart to be underdeveloped. Thankfully it has a good prognosis with the help of multiple surgeries including an open heart surgery that usually occurs...

Send us Fan Mail If you follow me on instagram then you know how special this episode is. Back in June of this year a friend of mine had sent me a post on instagram about a little 3 year old boy named Tru who was on vacation in Hawaii and suddenly became very ill. It turned out that he was fighting acute viral myocarditis. I immediately began praying for this little boy and his entire family. I sh...

Send us Fan Mail In today’s episode you get to meet Jenna Tanner a wife and Mom of 3 from Oklahoma. Jenna shares her story of surviving a sudden and major heart attack while home alone in 2022. In our conversation Jenna shares about her subtle symptoms leading up to the heart attack and how easy it is as women to disregard these symptoms. We discuss the disparity of information on female heart att...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode you get to meet my friend, Michelle. I was so encouraged after this conversation. Michelle’s cardiac arrest happened in 2011 and yet she’s still out here sharing and bringing awareness to what happened to her. I can only hope that I’ll be doing the same in another decade or so. Michelle's story is one of incredible resilience while enduring many trials. In 201...

Send us Fan Mail Abiomed has been such a wonderful resource for me, connecting me to so many people all over the world who have experienced heart failure. Today, I get to introduce you to Franzi. She lives in Germany which also happens to be where Thorstein Seiss, the inventor of the Impella lives and is from. Franzi shares her story about how coming down with the common cold led her on a scary ye...

Send us Fan Mail I am so excited for you all to hear today’s episode. This conversation is definitely the most I’ve ever laughed while discussing heart failure. Chavez has the most infectious and positive personality and he just radiates joy.  Today he shares his story of battling viral myocarditis at 29 years old after having recovered from covid. We talk about everything from law school to food...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the podcast. In this episode I interviewed my friend, Cheyenne. I first heard about Cheyenne through a friend whose sister was being treated for acute viral myocarditis at Providence St. Vincent’s just like I had been. My friend told me there was this girl who was also at St. Vincent’s due to heart failure but she had also just given birth. I remember praying for C...

Send us Fan Mail On today’s episode you will get to hear from my friend Marcie Wastewater. She is a beautiful, healthy, super active wife and mom of 2. She is going to share with you her story of surviving SCAD (S-C-A-D) which stands for Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection. It’s as scary as it sounds and it has also been called the “healthy woman’s heart attack”. I can’t wait for you to hear ho...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode you get to meet my friend, Jessica Grib. Jessica is a peripartum cardiomyopathy and paraganglioma survivor and advocate. In this episode she shares her story about the birth of her 2nd born child in 2016 and how she experienced heart failure and nearly died in the recovery room after delivery. Jessica later learned that she had a tumor called a paraganglioma that w...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode you get to meet my friend, Lauren Delaney. Lauren and I met through social media and as wild as it sounds we also had the exact same team of cardiologists. Lauren lives about an hour north of me and super close to Providence St. Vincent's Hospital. Today she's sharing her heart failure and heart transplant story with you all. I'm so grateful for her...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, you get to meet my friends Bobby and Carly Goines. Abiomed's Patient Advocacy program connected Bobby and I in the Spring of 2022 a few months after we had both recovered from Acute Viral Myocarditis. Our stories are eerily similar which has created a lifetime bond for our two families. We got to meet in person last February and I am really excited for you al...