On Sunday September 17th, our lives changed in a heartbeat. As some of you may know my family just moved to Denver and on their way back to Indiana to get the last of our belongings Bryan (my dad) suffered a catastrophic heart attack near Lincoln Nebraska. He had to have emergency open heart surgery to implement 5 bypasses around his blocked arteries. The surgery was not successful and he fell into an irregular heart rhythm. The nurses had to preform chest compressions for 45 minutes to be able to get him on ECMO (a machine that operated for his heart and lungs). The hospital in Lincoln said they did not have the resources to help my dad any further and he was transferred to Omaha into the cardiovascular ICU at University of Nebraska Omaha.
Since September 20th, we have been living in a hotel room in Omaha, Nebraska while my dad is fighting for his life. My dad has made some improvements since coming to Omaha. They were able to remove the breathing tube, though he is still on a machine assistance for his heart and currently would die without this assistance. Just this week, his medical team determined his heart is too damaged and will never recover. There are two courses of action the team has relayed to us: a LVAD device (a device that sits inside his heart the size of a fist and assists his current heart in pumping) or a heart transplant (a brand new heart).
These surgeries are not cheap, transplants cost around $1 million and the LVAD device costs around $200,000 (In addition to the previous surgeries, transports, and round the clock care he has already received).The team is recommending a transplant because of Bryan’s age and our healthy lifestyle. My dad is only 50, not overweight, decently active, and is on a healthy diet. This tragedy struck us out of no where. This has been devastating to our family emotionally and financially. We are currently living in a hotel and still paying for our apartment in Denver. Bryan is a husband, a father, a son, a brother and has so many friends and co-workers that love him and desperately want him to come home. He is the rock of this family and it's been very difficult for us to step into his shoes to keep things together. Simply, we just need him. We have only been dealing with this for 4 weeks and we're already struggling with the expenses and this is the beginning of a very long road.
Please every dollar adds up and we are appreciative for any donation.
Thank you for taking the time to read my family’s story.
