November 6, 2026
Guest Spotlight: Monique Robinson
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A New Heart, a Second Chance, and the Courage to Face Tomorrow
Monique Robinson was doing everything she thought she should to stay healthy. She exercised regularly, watched what she ate, and had no known history of heart disease.
Then, in 2013, something changed.
What began as unusual fatigue while climbing stairs eventually became a frightening diagnosis: her heart was functioning at just 15 percent of its normal pumping capacity.
Over the next 11 years, Robinson would survive seven cardiac arrests before doctors told her that a heart transplant was her only remaining option. But the physical battle was only part of her story. How do you live an ordinary life when you’re constantly afraid it could end?
When Healthy Isn’t Enough
The first warning signs seemed almost ordinary. Robinson was helping a friend move when she became unusually exhausted carrying boxes upstairs. She assumed she needed to exercise more.
A similar episode occurred weeks later, followed by unexplained shortness of breath. Eventually, her symptoms became so severe that she struggled to read aloud to her young son.
When she finally went to the emergency room, doctors discovered that her heart was failing. Despite extensive testing, they couldn’t identify a cause.
Robinson hadn’t suffered a heart attack. Her coronary arteries were clear. Yet she was living with a potentially life-threatening condition.
She left the hospital wearing a special vest equipped with an external defibrillator, designed to deliver a shock if her heart developed a dangerous rhythm.
The device offered protection, but it also became a constant reminder of how fragile her life had become.
Living With the Fear of Dying
For Robinson, one of the most difficult parts of heart failure wasn’t something doctors could measure on a medical chart.
It was fear.
She worried about what might happen while she slept, while she showered, or while she was caring for her children. Even ordinary activities became reminders that her heart could suddenly stop.
And despite having served as a pastor for 12 years, Robinson found herself struggling to draw on the very faith she had spent years teaching others.
During her conversation with Roy Ice on Lifestyle, she describes the moment when two friends came to visit and helped her begin confronting that fear.
What happened later that night became a turning point in her emotional journey, one she remembers with extraordinary clarity.
The Gift of Another Chance
Robinson continued managing her condition while raising her family, but her health remained unpredictable. Over the years, she experienced multiple cardiac arrests, eventually surviving seven episodes in which her heart stopped.
Following the seventh, doctors delivered devastating news. Her heart could no longer sustain her future, and a transplant offered her a chance to live.
The decision brought a new emotional struggle.
Robinson desperately wanted to live, but she also understood that receiving a donor heart meant another family would be grieving a tremendous loss.
How could she celebrate a second chance at life while knowing someone else had died?
It’s one of the most moving questions she explores with Roy, along with the conversation that helped her begin to understand the extraordinary gift she was receiving.
Learning to Live Again
Today, Robinson describes feeling like a new person. But she hasn’t forgotten the years of uncertainty or the people who helped carry her through them.
Her experience changed the way she thinks about caring for herself. As a wife and mother accustomed to putting everyone else’s needs first, she learned that protecting her own well-being was essential to being there for her family.
Her faith remains central to her outlook, as does her gratitude for the support of her husband, children, relatives, and friends.
And when Roy shares his own experience of surviving a serious cardiac emergency, their conversation takes on an especially personal dimension.
