“Ella’s New Beat” is an autobiography written by University of Missouri senior Ella Morrissey that chronicles her journey living with a heart disease called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

The book, released on July 21, was a four year long project for Ella detailing her life experiences. Ella had two big hopes for the book: to comfort those who shared a similar story and to thank the family of the heart donor.

“My hope is that these words find you wherever you are in life and inspire you to confront your own challenges with both humility and resilience. From my heart, Ella,” Ella wrote in her book.

Her condition appeared suddenly when the then 10-year-old Ella was rushing to retrieve a forgotten notebook. Her book describes in detail the moment her heart failure first made its appearance. After fainting, Ella had woken up to what she had described as ‘stars floating around a sea of wide-eyed faces.’ Rushing to find out the cause is what led to seven years worth of medicine, shocks and doctor’s visits.

“Upon my return to the library, the world around me suddenly seemed to spin at a dizzying speed,” Ella wrote in her book.

Her twin sister Maria had been right beside her.

“We didn’t understand because I think we both thought that it wasn’t a thing that would happen to people our age, so we never really, at least I didn’t really believe that it was real,” Maria said.

After her first doctor’s visit and learning the weight of her diagnosis, the next step was looking at all possible solutions. She was placed on a donor wait list in hopes of receiving a heart transplant. In the meantime, she was given an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. The machine was a last resort in case her heart ever ‘dared to falter,’ in which case, it would jolt her heart back into place.

“It was kind of isolating to be the only person I knew that had that disease,” Ella said. “I didn’t know anyone, and I didn’t have a child life specialist. I feel like a lot of it was feeling void of that, like loneliness and isolation.”

As time went on, the condition became harder to hide in plain sight, which led to her feeling anxious in her social life.

“In high school, I feel like pretty much only my closest friends knew, and I didn’t make many friends,” Ella said. “I was very shy, and I would do all of this on purpose.”

As she became more nervous and anxious, shocks from her machine became more common. These cycles led Ella to develop habits like leaving class early, limiting her circle of friends and leading her to avoid public events.

“There were just so many times in high school that I was just so heartbroken for her because of things that she couldn’t do,” Ella’s friend Lily Mantel said. “She would get insecure, and I was always telling her, ‘You have nothing to be insecure about.’”

The severity of the shocks rapidly increased towards the end of Ella’s junior year of high school. Changes in medication dosages seemed not to work like they had in the past.

“I kept getting shocks until I got a really big one, and then they were like, ‘We can’t do anything else, we need to consider a heart transplant,” Ella said.

Putting her senior year of high school on hold meant pressures seniors typically had like applying for college and worrying about scholarships, didn’t mean the same for Ella as they did for others. Going away for college wasn’t an option when going from class to class had already caused a variety of issues.

“My heart would not have been able to handle college,” Ella said.

Ella eventually reached the top of the transplant list. The fear of never receiving a new heart was over.

“When I found out she was getting a transplant, I heard in her voice [that] she was excited and scared because her voice was so shaky, but I was really excited, but also really scared,” Maria said. “I think we felt similar emotions, but for different reasons.”

The feeling of excitement was overwhelmed by a feeling of anxiety about what could happen during surgery. Even if everything went right, recovery would still be long and tiring.

“Obviously, we never wanted to think the worst, but to be honest, I really never thought that she would be here and just doing as well as she is,” Mantel said. “I mean, right after her transplant, even then, it wasn’t looking perfect.”

The post-surgery recovery process for Ella was difficult. She dealt with ‘brain fog’ and a lot of pain while her body was getting used to her new heart.

“It was a really big obstacle,” Ella said. “Because not only was it just like pain I’ve never honestly felt before, it was also senior year, where it was everyone’s last football game, everyone’s hanging out, everyone’s last year, all the seniors are getting closer. I was missing out on so much stuff.”

Overcoming the obstacles that the recovery process had meant a lot to Ella. Being active and social again changed her personality, as she felt more present in a room and began picking up her life that she had left off when she was a kid.

“I always knew I could be so much more if I didn’t have that heart disease,” Ella said.

Ella was eventually able to return to school. As she broke her old habits, she was able to walk to class, attend prom and walk the graduation stage along with her sister and best friend.

“I will never forget it,” Mantel said. “Everyone threw their cap up in the air, and I turned around and I looked at Ella, she was jumping up and down. My first instinct was like, ‘Oh my god, stop jumping up and down, your heart rate is going to go too low,’ but then immediately I was like, ‘No, she’s fine.”

Ella’s journey didn’t turn her away from hospitals and medicine, but instead strengthened her motivation for what to do with her future.

“I went to Mizzou, and I just really felt drawn to it,” Ella said. “And I was like, ‘This is a place that’s like the perfect distance from home, where I can be away to get some independence finally.’”

Ella is now in her senior year of college, majoring in human development and family science. She hopes to become a child life specialist to help kids in the same circumstances as her.

“I didn’t really have one (a child life specialist) until later on,” Ella said. “I’m not sure why, but I got one, and she basically became my closest friend in the hospital, and she was like, friend, and she just helped me through the whole journey.”

This goal led her to write this book. Partnering with Make-A-Wish, she wrote a children’s book that illustrates the hardships she went through, which was published this past summer.

“The main objective for it is to be in hospitals, and do readings in hospitals for kids,” Ella said. “I just want it there for a kid to read and be like ‘Oh my gosh, like, this girl gets it.’”

Edited by Maggie LeBeau | [email protected]
Copy edited by Drew Johnson and Emma Harper | [email protected]
Edited by Chase Pray | [email protected]