When Brooke Pantier was an infant, her doctors believe she didn’t have much of a chance to live past 2 years of age as she was diagnosed with a complex congenital heart condition. She was in and out of Seattle Children’s Hospital for the first year of her life and had her first surgery at eight months old.
At age 44, Pantier received a heart transplant.
The Chehalis resident surpassed all of her doctors’ expectations and is in the University of Washington Medical Center resting and recovering from the May 8 surgery.
Pantier was diagnosed with hypoplastic right heart syndrome as a baby, as well as a ventricular septal defect and an atrial septal defect. At 2 and a half months old, she became very sick and struggled for every breath. When she was 8, she underwent open-heart surgery to fuse her pulmonary artery and her aorta.
After some complications, she recovered and led a normal life, playing fastpitch softball from age 9 to 16 and graduating from W.F. West High School in 1999.
From ages 6 to 14, Pantier attended the Stanley Stamm Children’s Hospital Camp for chronically ill children to enjoy a summer camp experience in a safe environment surrounded by doctors and nurses. She later served as a cabin counselor for the camp for 23 years and has also visited 17 countries and 21 states, including living in Cambodia for over a year as a missionary working with children.
In April of 2024, she suffered chronic systolic heart failure and was back in the hospital. She returned to the UW Medical Center on February 27, 2025, and has been waiting for a heart transplant since. Doctors determined that her aorta was bound to rupture, and she underwent a series of tests to determine if she would be a good candidate for a heart transplant.
It took four different hearts to find the right one, but Pantier is on track to return home with her husband Adam.
“This is the third heart that we got. Technically, it’s the fourth, but they weren’t supposed to tell us about one of them,” Adam Pantier said. “The first one was a really good heart. We went down to the operating room. They prepped her, and she was literally going to be wheeled away to the operating room, but then the doctors came in and explained that the donor was deceased but there was still activity on the heart. When that happens, they can’t use the heart after 90 minutes. We sat there for 90 minutes, and then at 91 minutes, they declared that we couldn’t use the heart. It was pretty devastating.”
The Pantiers endured two more painful experiences with potential matches, as the second heart had arrhythmias and was unusable. Doctors told them that there was another potential heart before declaring that it was a mistake, Adam said.
But on May 7, they finally had their match for Brooke. In the more than two weeks since the procedure, she has been drinking fluids and disconnected from most of the tubes, despite a pneumonia scare for the first week. Adam said it’s likely that she is discharged from the hospital next week, and he plans to take three months off from his job as a transportation department manager for a food service distribution company to be Brooke’s caregiver.
“She’s going to be basically in bed recovering. Our biggest concern is that she can’t get an infection. We have to come up to UW once a week so they can do a series of tests; one of them is a biopsy on the heart,” Adam Pantier said.
The Pantiers’ parents have been taking care of their two children, Malakai, 10, and Lucia, 4, while they make the long treks to and from Seattle. Adam said the stress of Brooke’s medical “rollercoaster” has taken a toll on the whole family but that his wife of 11 years has handled it humbly.
“It’s been kind of a burden that others are having to take care of the kids, but fortunately they’re willing to help. She’s being humble through it and not being like, ‘Woe is me,’ or telling everybody she has a heart condition,” he said. “I’m inspired by how strong she is. She’s endured so much over her lifetime.”
Adam thanked the UW medical staff for their care and support of him and Brooke over the last three months, especially the first week after the procedure when she battled pneumonia and was “basically asleep for six days.”
“It’s very profound. I can’t find the right words for it. They are really caring. They communicate very well, and they work very well together. It’s a really dynamic team,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen something so amazing.”
Adam and Brooke created a public Facebook group called “Beats for Brooke” where they provide updates to a community of over 300 members. Under every post, dozens of people send prayers and positive thoughts to the Pantier family.
“It’s been uplifting and encouraging. It’s a good reminder that we’re not alone through all of this,” Adam Pantier said of the comments.
Adam said a potential fundraising event in Lewis County is in the works for this summer as they face $16,000 of medical debt to pay, and a friend started a GiveSendGo campaign that has raised over $1,500, as of Friday.
The fundraiser can be found at https://tinyurl.com/4j9jsuw5.
