Heart failure rising among younger Canadians, data shows. This cardiologist explains why – CTV
May 05, 2026
At 23, Jenny Milne was told her gall bladder stopped working, which after months of tests and investigation, turned out to be heart failure.
The doctors couldn’t figure out why her white blood cell count was so high, why she was always out of breath and why she had free fluid in her abdomen.
“I couldn’t walk five feet in front of me without taking a break,” the Chilliwack, B.C. native told CTVNews.ca on Monday, adding that she thought it was just asthma.
At her doctor’s request, she took a COVID-19 test, which turned out to be negative. Her doctor was puzzled as she kept getting worse.
Two weeks later, Milne noticed that her legs had swollen. This led to a series of heart activity tests, including a Holter monitor test, an electrocardiogram (ECG), an echo cardiogram and a cardiac MRI.
She was told her heart was enlarged and there was something infiltrating it. She was also diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism and a clot in one of her lungs.
