By Mari Radtke
Beginning in 2011, McKenzi Villareal’s heart health has needed constant supervision. Through the years her stamina has dwindled, yet she carried on. Finally in 2024 she, with guidance from her healthcare team, reached the unavoidable conclusion that further surgical intervention was necessary.
For months, fighting insurance and making plans for caring for her kids, travel and other concerns for what was expected to be a maybe 10-day stay were the focus of her days in addition to the regular obligations of family and work.
Finally on September 11, 2024 McKenzi was prepped for surgery and put under anesthesia with her husband, Jesus, near her side. The surgery took nearly 10 hours. As she was going into surgery her heart rate was 200 bpm. Her heart was giving up. Her left lung was completely blocked. Her right lung has some blockage. Her heart was enlarged due to the long-term overuse. When she finally got to Chicago, she was very sick. Removing the blockage was the point of this surgery. Removing the blockage gave a path for blood to flow.
The doctors were confident, inspired confidence and so she and Jesus left it to the surgeons. They were always prepared and ready to respond. “I put all my trust in my doctors. The last video I waived tot he camera and said, ‘I’m gonna get my good drugs,’” then she was off to surgery.
McKenzi did not wake up during her recovery time after this surgery. A blood clot was found next to her heart and she was returned to the operating room on September 13. Again, she did not wake up. On September 19, she became that 2:00am emergency. Her blood pressure dropped severely. All her vitals showed emergency. As they were taking her into surgery for the third time in 8 days, her husband was told, “If this doesn’t work, we don’t know what else to do.” Blood has pooled around her heart. The pressure of the fluid buildup prevented the heart from beating and moving the blood as it should.

Following the surgery she was placed into an induced coma and on an ECMO machine (Estracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation). Her blood was artificially pumped into and through the device to enrich it with oxygen and then move through her body. “I never knew so many machines could be hooked up to a human body,” McKenzi remarked as she recounted her experience. Some of the machines she can recall in addition to ECMO are right heart catheter, pulsometery (that created a blister that left quite a scar on her wrist), feeding tubes, chest tubes and some kind of face mask, maybe CPAP, which she said was the worst. They came off little by little.
She regained consciousness on September 23. Although it was a daily routine for her caregivers to talk to her, get her to squeeze their hand, she has no recollection of any of that time. “It was a horrible nightmare. It was ridiculous,” she says of the experience.
She woke up paranoid, believing people were out to get her. At first she couldn’t talk. Part was due to the breathing tube for a week. Initially, her hands wouldn’t write. She had to go through some physical therapy to relearn some tasks we typically take for granted, like swallowing. But the PT was short lived for other reasons. Her throat did eventually heal. She was able to relearn how to hold a pen, form letters and words, although writing letters didn’t necessarily make words or words make sentences. An entire letter sent to her sister made no sense.
McKenzi explains that she had no sense of time. She lost a great deal of weight. She went from a feeding tube to pureed food and finally to real food. She says the pureed food wasn’t so bad, even better than the food she was finally served on her last day there, October 4. She got locked out of her phone because the facial recognition didn’t recognize her. The paranoia was strong for a while and the hallucinations were – and remain a vivid memory.
Her release from the Chicago hospital as the 150th patient of this particular surgery, she was not allowed to lift for 6 weeks. After all, her sternum had been opened 3 times in less than a month. She had to wait a few weeks to drive. Follow up care is in Cherokee for blood work and to monitor the healing. For now it is constant blood work. She will be on blood thinners for her entire life. “The back pain was the worst,” she said. When her chest was opened, the back structure was also affected. She was particularly careful of her sternum.
Today, McKenzi feels good. She says, “It is crazy to think of breathing normally.” Before she could barely walk 2 blocks before getting winded. Now, she does chores she was unable to do before. She goes back to Chicago on May 7 for more testing. They will check her blood pressure and other vitals. It remains low. One process is to insert a right heart catheter to measure pressures. If they are low, her team will look for and remove obstructions such as a possible blood clot, scar tissue or something like that. They will already be in position to do such a procedure. The protocol is for checkups at 3,6,9 and 12 months. Fighting with insurance resulted in her missing her 3-month follow up. Much of the dispute is due to the procedure and follow up out of network. Three hospitals in the country do this surgery. Chicago is the closest. Getting this care was a huge lift to overcome the insurance obstacle.
Since her return, McKenzi has adopted a few new habits, in addition to doing the tasks she couldn’t do before. She has a stair stepper at home and an ab machine. She says, “I have a new chance at life. I want to do things to stay healthy.”
Her mom and sisters were a huge help with her kids while her 10 days turned into 23 days in the hospital and weeks of home recovery. She said “I couldn’t have asked for a better community.” Food deliveries while she was gone and since her return, help with the house. She said random people would come to help her mom and kids. I would not be here without the whole town, county and state’s prayers. There are so many. “The messages I received after waking up were amazing. They truly were,” she said. Pro Go made sure we were okay. I have a great team. Sheldon Coop, Jesus’ employer, were very helpful. “I can’t say thank you enough to my mom, sisters and husband.” There are many.
“It’s been a journey,” McKenzi said. I’ve never been in a place where they pull together (as Primghar did for her). It’s nice.”