Influencer Undergoes Heart Transplant After Having Heart Attack at Age 24

A British influencer is speaking out after undergoing a heart transplant at age 24 following a heart attack.

Lifestyle content creator Faye Greenwood — who has over 624,000 followers on TikTok and over 300,000 on Instagram — shared her story on social media after having a heart attack while on vacation in Paris last summer.

Greenwood said in an Instagram post that first responders initially thought she might be “drunk,” and once she got to the emergency room, she was made to sit in “bad pain” for “hours.”

“I couldn’t take it anymore, so I left and thought maybe I was being dramatic and went home to try [and] sleep it off. Woke up feeling worse and throwing up blood,” Greenwood wrote over a hospital photo, adding that her now-fiancé — fellow influencer Ailbhe Lower, known online as Mr. Bruv — then called for help again, and she was rushed into the hospital for surgery.

While speaking to the BBC on Monday, Jan. 5, Greenwood recalled, “I couldn’t believe that something that serious would be happening,” adding, “[You think:] ‘That won’t happen to me,’ and then it did.”

Greenwood told the outlet that she’d been experiencing symptoms, such as chest pains and vomiting.

“I can’t really remember a lot, but I just felt I was in really bad pain, something I’ve never felt before,” she said.

“A feeling of doom, like the world was closing in,” the influencer added, per the BBC.

Lower — who has over 583,000 followers on TikTok and 230,000 on Instagram — told the outlet that due to translation issues and medics not thinking Greenwood’s symptoms were a heart attack because of her age, it was six and a half hours before she was admitted to the hospital.

Greenwood was previously diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, but said that might not be a factor in what caused her heart attack last year, per the BBC.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, “Dilated cardiomyopathy causes tissue in your heart’s main pumping chamber to expand (dilate) and thin out. This makes it unable to pump as strongly as it should.”

“Genetics or heart attack damage can cause this, but often, the cause is unknown. This condition can affect several chambers of your heart and lead to complications like heart failure,” per the medical center.

Greenwood, who lives in the East Sussex town of Lewes, returned to the U.K. after her heart attack in Paris and was luckily able to find a heart transplant donor, according to the BBC. She had the operation and left the hospital in just over four months.

“It’s just something you never really think that you’re going to have to deal with,” the content creator — who received a £14,000 (around $18,800) bill after being hospitalized in France, as well as a separate £40,000 (over $53,700) bill after being flown back to the U.K. in an air ambulance — told the BBC.

Greenwood reflected on her health story in an Instagram post in November, writing, “What a crazy ol time it’s been! It’s been 5 months since my heart attack and a few months since my heart transplant. yes I have a lovely new heart i can’t believe it really.”

“My head is still in a million different worlds filled with happiness, sadness, gratitude, grief, pain, inspiration and lots of love everything feels a lot more special once you experience everything you know life to be about very nearly being taken away from you so suddenly,” she continued.

The content creator added, “Anyway heck of a ride I’m just so happy to be here & on the other side of it with my special borrowed heartbeat. I couldn’t of done it without all the support it’s been so so insane so thank you x100000 and of course having my wonderful guy @ailbhelower with me, truly the most precious man, you mean more to me than anything I could ever think or dream to experience i can’t wait to continue enjoying every moment we have together my love ♥️.”

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Greenwood is now urging others to get checked out if they think something might be wrong, telling the BBC, “If you think anything could be wrong, even a very small thing, just definitely get it checked out or push the doctors to check you out.”

Lower, who recently shared the couple’s engagement story on social media, added to the outlet, “Don’t just think: ‘It’ll be fine, it won’t happen to me’, because we thought that.”

Greenwood did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.