I blamed my fatigue and weight gain on getting older. Then doctors uncovered the terrifying hidden cause… it was almost too late
When Alex Balmes turned 31, he started to notice how perpetually exhausted he felt.
The construction project manager from Florida had celebrated his birthday in July of 2024, just a few months after welcoming his first child, a baby girl, into the world.
He had never been a fan of doctors, putting off getting a primary care physician and only seeking medical help when he felt it was absolutely necessary.
So when he started vomiting and waking up in the middle of the night gasping for breath shortly after the birthday festivities, he chocked it up to getting older. As he struggled to get up a flight of stairs and gained 20lbs, he blamed the changes on being a new father and growing into his ‘dad bod.’
His breaths quickened over the following days and his heart raced without cause. ‘I thought it was anxiety,’ Balmes, now 32, told the Daily Mail.
‘The biggest thing was I was getting real tired. I couldn’t even go up and down the stairs. I would have to get help, or I would stop halfway up my stairs, catch my breath and then take the rest up. It was really strange.’
About five days after the initial symptoms set in, Balmes’s fiancée rushed him to the hospital, where doctors said they ‘highly believe it’s heart failure.’
Affecting 6.7 million American adults, heart failure, or cardiomyopathy, occurs when the heart cannot pump enough blood to the rest of the body, causing it to back up leading to fluid buildup in the lungs.
Pictured: Alex Balmes at his home in Florida with his daughter. He told the Daily Mail that when he first started experiencing symptoms of heart failure, he blamed them on being a new dad and getting older
It has long been seen as a disease of old age, as eight in 10 patients are over the age of 65. But emerging research shows more young Americans than ever are being struck by heart failure, which experts suggest could be due to surging rates of obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure, all of which put excess strain on the heart.
‘I think part of this may be attributed to morbid obesity, which is also on the rise, as well as nutrition factors,’ Dr Yahaira Ortiz, Balmes’s cardiologist at the Orlando Health Heart and Vascular Institute, told the Daily Mail. ‘So there’s a lot more that goes on with it, but it’s a lot more common now than it was in prior years, unfortunately.’
She said women who have just given birth are at a particularly high risk of heart failure due to associated risks of preeclampsia, pregnancy-related high blood pressure, as well as those with a family history of cardiovascular disease.
Balmes is also half Filipino, a group that studies show is twice as likely to die of heart-related issues compared to the overall US population.
Doctors told Balmes he needed additional tests to diagnose heart failure, but he insisted on going home.
‘I don’t like being in hospitals,’ he said. ‘I honestly am scared of them. I don’t like doctors.
‘Whenever I feel like I have to see a doctor or hospital, there’s something seriously wrong.’
Less than a week later, Balmes found himself back in the emergency room with the same symptoms. His heart had started ‘racing out of nowhere and thumping in my chest,’ leading doctors to order a battery of tests, including a CT scan and cardiac catheterization.
Cardiac catheterization involves inserting a tube into a blood vessel in the arm or groin and moving it to the heart to evaluate the organ’s function.
Balmes was diagnosed with left ventricular non-compaction cardiomyopathy (LVNC), a rare condition in which the lower left chamber of the heart, the left ventricle, doesn’t fully develop. Instead of being firm and smooth like a developed left ventricle, it remains spongy and thick like in early childhood, unable to contract and relax normally.
This limits the heart’s ability to pump blood throughout the rest of the body, resulting in abnormal heart rhythms, shortness of breath, fatigue, weakness and fluid in the lungs.
Pictured: Balmes in the hospital after his heart failure diagnosis. Despite an intense medication regimen, his condition continued to decline
Pictured: Balmes with his cardiologist, Dr Yahaira Ortiz of Orlando Health, who encouraged him to have a surgical implant placed while he awaits a heart transplant
LVNC, which affects between eight and 12 out of every 1 million Americans each year, is usually congenital, meaning patients are born with it. This was the case for Balmes.
Further testing showed he also has a genetic disorder that has weakened the muscles in this area – additional evaluation is needed to determine which disorder he has.
For about three months after his diagnosis, doctors prescribed Balmes a laundry list of medications to target his symptoms and improve his heart function, including the diuretic bumetanide, beta blocker carvedilol and the diabetes and heart failure drug Jardiance.
But his condition continued to worsen with repeated vomiting, making it nearly impossible to eat. Balmes lost around 50lbs and was constantly being hospitalized for weeks at a time to remove excess fluid from his lungs and deliver IV medications. His gallbladder also began to fail due to reduced blood flow, forcing doctors to implant a drain in the organ to filter out excess fluid.
In October 2024, Balmes began seeing Ortiz at Orlando Health, who confirmed he was in advanced (Stage D) heart failure. This is the most severe stage of the disease, where the heart’s ability to pump is significantly reduced.
She strongly urged Balmes to consider a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implant, an open-heart surgical procedure that involves placing a battery-powered pump into a patient’s chest to help circulate blood.
Ortiz (pictured) told the Daily Mail that heart failure is on the rise in young Americans, which could be due to rising rates of obesity and diabetes, both of which put strain on the heart
Pictured: Balmes with Ortiz after undergoing surgery, which was performed in November 2024
‘The pump goes in the left side of the heart, so it’s mainly meant to support the left side,’ Ortiz told the Daily Mail. ‘This pump is implanted at the tip of your heart, and essentially the way it’s working is it’s pulling the blood out of the ventricle, which is the bottom chamber of the heart, and spinning it and putting it into a graft that goes from that pump all the way to the aorta (the body’s main and largest artery).
‘This pump is now doing the job of the heart, so whatever residual activity the heart may still have, it can still contract, but then most of the job is being done by the pump, allowing for better blood flow.’
Balmes told the Daily Mail he was initially ‘very against any surgery’ due to the invasive nature. But he eventually agreed in November 2024, just after his daughter’s first birthday.
After the roughly six-hour procedure, Balmes spent two weeks recovering in the hospital before returning home. Now, he estimates his health is at ‘about 90 percent.’ He can no longer swim at the beach due to the lithium battery packs powering his implant and he has had to move his workouts inside to the gym to avoid excess sweating in the Florida heat.
Big rollercoasters at nearby Disney World are also out of the question because the motion may dislodge the device or put stress on the heart. However, he can still play with his daughter and works out at least three times a week with weightlifting, running and cycling. He has also regained the weight he lost prior to surgery and has reversed his gallbladder failure due to the LVAD.
Pictured: Balmes with his medical team at Orlando Health. He is now awaiting a heart transplant
Balmes (pictured at home with his daughter) is now urging other young Americans to seek help immediately if they experience unusual symptoms
However, the LVAD is just a temporary solution – Balmes ultimately still needs a heart transplant.
He is one of 3,800 Americans on the heart transplant list.
‘I’m fairly young, and with this condition, I’m not going to get better,’ he told the Daily Mail. ‘This heart pump is just to keep me going.’
Doctors estimate Balmes could get a new heart later this year, but the exact timing is unclear. The average heart transplant lasts for 12 to 15 years.
‘[My doctors] said, in my life, I’m probably going to get three hearts because I’m so [young]. I never knew [transplanted] hearts only last so long,’ Balmes said.
Balmes is now urging other young people to get checked urgently if they experience any unusual symptoms to prevent their condition from becoming as advanced as his.
‘This is something that is happening to a lot of younger people nowadays,’ he told the Daily Mail. ‘This is mostly known to be affecting older people. Heart failure is something you think about when you’re like 50, 60 and up. But it’s starting to happen a lot more in younger people, and it’s just always good to be proactive.
‘If you feel like you’re getting older, start acting like you’re older. Get your checkups.’
