If I only had a heart…

I could stay young and chipper

And I’d lock it with a zipper

If I only had a heart

If I Only Had A Heart sung by Jack Haley

I know some of you may have noticed that I have slowed down posting here and on Facebook.

I thought I’d let you know my situation.

In Need of a Heart

On May 5th of this year, my husband, my daughters’ dad, had a sudden cardiac arrest at work. He works at the Oakland Airport for Southwest Airlines. 

When this happened, he was walking down a hallway going to the break room when he fell to the ground. His co-worker saw him out of the corner of his eye and called 911.

But here’s the good part he just happened to fall outside of a classroom where a CPR class was in session.  He became the class!  CPR was initiated immediately, and the paramedics were within minutes.

They brought him back to us. Yeah CPR!

He was rushed to Highland Hospital where he was put into a medically induced coma. He came out of it two days later with no memory of the previous days.

Teff was discharged from Highland Hospital on May 13th after having a defibrillator inserted and an ok’d to go back to work on June 1st.   

He went back to work on June 4th and did fine, just a little slower than usual. He went back to work on June 7th; he left early because he wasn’t feeling well. I took him to the VA clinic in downtown Oakland, and they determined he needed to be rushed back to the ER at Highland Hospital. He went via an ambulance, and I went via our car.

Long story short, the doctors at Highland (shout out to them) determined that he needed to be transferred to California Pacific Medical Center(CPMC) in San Francisco for them to evaluate him for either a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) or a heart transplant.  

He was transferred to CPMC on June 11th.

On June 18th, they determined he was a good candidate for a transplant and added him to the UNOS list.

Today, July 4th, he is still in the hospital, attached to many machines waiting for a heart.

My heart is breaking having him so far away from us.  

He has been very supportive of me writing this blog and all the research I do for the various groups on Facebook. But the little I do make is not be enough to cover our living expenses, the cost of going back and forth to SF, and the mounting medical bill (our share.)

My daughter set up this is June.

Thank you, everyone, for all the excellent comments you have left or have told me in person about how much you love my blog.  

Thank you, Dorothy

More info:

• Defibrillator – Medline Plus
• Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD)
• CPMC – Heart Transplant
• CPR Training Kiosk – OAK

The End