An assistant principal at M.A. Milam K-8 Center in Hialeah is recovering from a life-saving heart transplant.
"It has made me stronger. It has also allowed me to learn that I need to slow down," Dr. Erika Carter-Rolle said. "I believe if you fail to plan, you plan to fail so I continued to plan in my life and this wasn't part of my plan."
Carter-Rolle said her ordeal began eight years ago with a cold virus.
"Mine was a cold I couldn't get rid of," she said.
Carter-Rolle had cardiomyopathy, a condition doctors say often leads to heart failure. That's what happened to Carter-Rolle. Having suffered a stroke, her heart was eventually operating at just 10 percent, making walking just a few feet a challenge.
"I had to react and to figure out if I was going to allow this to affect me in a negative or I was going to continue on and that's what I chose to do," she said.
She continued going to school for her doctorate and continued working as assistant principal at M.A. Milam.
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"I was definitely on borrowed time," she said.
It got to the point that she needed a new heart and she was put on a transplant list.
"I said 'let's do this' when I got the call, I'm going for it," she said.
Now, a month later and Carter-Rolle is out of the hospital. The eight years have changed the naturally driven educator from a woman who liked to plan it all to a survivor who now takes life one day at a time.
"I went in like a champion and came out as a warrior," she said.
Carter-Rolle has plenty of doctor's appointments planned for the the future but she hopes her story will help Inspire others to never let a diagnosis stop them even when doctors say you're living on borrowed time.
