A British social media personality is sharing her terrifying survival story after suffering a heart attack at just 24 years old — a medical crisis that ultimately led to a heart transplant.
Lifestyle creator Faye Greenwood, who has hundreds of thousands of followers across TikTok and Instagram, opened up about the ordeal after collapsing while on vacation in Paris last summer.
In an Instagram post, Greenwood said first responders initially assumed she was drunk. When she finally reached the emergency room, she was left sitting in what she described as severe pain for hours.
“I couldn’t take it anymore,” Greenwood wrote. “So I left and thought maybe I was being dramatic and went home to try and sleep it off.”
That decision nearly cost her life.
Greenwood said she woke up feeling even worse and began vomiting blood. Her now-fiancé, fellow influencer Ailbhe Lower — known online as Mr. Bruv — immediately called for help again, and Greenwood was rushed back to the hospital, where she was taken into emergency surgery.
Speaking to the BBC, Greenwood said she never imagined something so serious could happen at her age.
“You think, ‘That won’t happen to me,’ and then it did,” she said.
She recalled experiencing chest pain, vomiting, and an overwhelming sense that something was terribly wrong.
“A feeling of doom, like the world was closing in,” Greenwood said.
Lower told the BBC that language barriers and Greenwood’s young age delayed doctors from recognizing the heart attack. He said it took roughly six and a half hours before she was finally admitted for proper treatment.
Greenwood had previously been diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition that affects the heart’s ability to pump blood. According to the Cleveland Clinic, the condition can weaken the heart and lead to heart failure, though Greenwood said doctors are unsure whether it directly caused her heart attack.
After stabilizing in France, Greenwood was flown back to the U.K., where she was placed on a transplant list. She later received a donor heart and was discharged from the hospital just over four months later.
The ordeal came with a massive financial toll. Greenwood told the BBC she received a £14,000 hospital bill in France and an additional £40,000 bill for the air ambulance that brought her home.
Reflecting on the experience in a November Instagram post, Greenwood wrote that she is still processing everything.
“It’s been five months since my heart attack and a few months since my heart transplant,” she shared. “Yes, I have a lovely new heart — I can’t believe it really.”
She described living with a mix of gratitude, grief, pain, and joy, saying that nearly losing her life made everything feel more meaningful.
“I’m just so happy to be here & on the other side of it with my special borrowed heartbeat,” Greenwood wrote, thanking supporters and praising Lower for standing by her throughout the crisis.
Now recovering, Greenwood is urging others not to ignore warning signs.
“If you think anything could be wrong, even a very small thing, definitely get it checked out,” she told the BBC. “Push doctors to check you out.”
Lower echoed the warning, saying, “Don’t just think, ‘It’ll be fine, it won’t happen to me,’ because we thought that.”