JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — One year after undergoing a heart transplant, a Jacksonville woman finished her first marathon!
Erin Coello crossed the finish line at the DONNA Marathon on Sunday with her husband, Gaston, by her side. Her fitness coach, Adam Woodmansee, also finished the race.
Coello is a veterinarian, wife and mother of two who made fitness a priority after a health scare.
"I started feeling sick in 2015. I was finishing up school and I was stressed and I was on clinical rotations and I thought for a long time I had walking pneumonia," Coello said.
Coello went to the emergency room after experiencing severe chest congestion, breathing complications and sleeping issues. She was diagnosed with congestive heart failure at the age of 29.
"They couldn't figure out where it came from. It showed up all of sudden," Coello explained.
Coello was put on a heart transplant list and that was a wake-up call to improve her health. She joined Training for Warriors Julington Creek in St. Johns County.
"I made this huge change. Adam very politely bullied me into changing my diet and coming to class and I got off the list," Coello added.
But, last year, she suddenly got really sick.
"That's when I went to the hospital and they said you're not leaving without a heart," Coello said.
She stayed in the hospital for several weeks waiting on a donor.
"My first thought was...am I ever going to see my kids again? I thought for sure they would give me some medication. I would be fine. I would go home," Coello explained.
After 30 days, she was able to receive a heart transplant. She decided to celebrate her recovery by running the DONNA Marathon...all 26.2 miles!