Chelsea’s Beating Heart
- Nov 9, 2020
INFINIT Givesback to One of Our Own
“Thank you for calling INFINIT Nutrition, this is Chelsea.”
If you've ever called into INFINIT HQ, there's a good chance those were the words that greeted you on the other end of the phone.
Chelsea’s smiling face would have been the first thing you saw when you walked in the door. We like to call her “The Gatekeeper” around the office — She was the one who kept orders flowing, carefully writing each Custom Blend name before hand-delivering them to be measured and mixed by our INFINIT Mixologists. Not to mention, she’s the person who would surprise the office by bringing in veggie trays and her famous stuffed meatballs, just because.
Chelsea has been the backbone of our team here at INFINIT, keeping operations running smoothly for over 7 years.
On August 1st, 2020, Chelsea was unexpectedly rushed to a local hospital. When she arrived, her team of doctors quickly discovered that her heart was failing. They began working tirelessly to keep it pumping, but it was too weak to keep going without the help of machines. At just 31 years old, this vibrant, active, and seemingly healthy mother of two was told she needed a new heart to live.
Almost overnight, Chelsea became one of the 3,000 American’s on the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) Heart Transplant list. Miraculously, within 3 days, a donor match was found and on August 8th Chelsea underwent the 8+ hour surgery to receive the gift of her new donor heart.
In the weeks that followed, Chelsea saw good days and bad. After a second open heart procedure, she started making strides towards recovery, and her unwavering spirit and determination to get back home to her girls kept her moving forward.
Chelsea was cleared to return home with her new heart about a month after she was first admitted. Our girl is strong and is recovering well, but post-transplant recovery is a lifelong journey.
The average cost of a heart transplant in the United States is 1.4 million dollars over the course of someone’s life, this includes the multiple daily medications to ensure that the donor heart is not rejected.
Due to her rigorous therapy schedules, it is expected that Chelsea won’t be able to return to work for at least six months to a year. On top of managing her recovery and intense schedule of doctors appointments, she continues to be an amazing and dedicated mother to her two adorable girls, Vivien and Maggie.
In support of this much-loved member of our INFINIT Family, during the week of November 9th-13th, 2020, INFINIT Nutrition will be donating a portion of all sales to Chelsea’s Beating Heart Foundation to help support Chelsea and her family as she continues her road to recovery.
In addition, another portion of sales during this week will be donated to Donate Life to support their mission to increase the number of donated organs, eyes and tissues available to save and heal lives through transplantation and to develop a culture where donation is embraced as a fundamental human responsibility.
For more information about Chelsea and her recovery visit her GoFundMe page. For more information and information on how to get involved with Donate Life visit donatelife.net.