Hi Jennifer,
When I was 67 years old, an active athlete and weight lifter for the past 55 years, I had what they described as a mild heart attack. It was so mild that it didn't even show up on an EKG and I was told that there was no visible heart damage. They told me that I would be going for an angiogram, that they probably would find a blockage in one or to coronary arteries, that they likely would insert a stent or two and that I'd likely be discharged from the hospital in four days.
The angiogram disclosed that I had major blockages in five coronary arteries, including the left anterior descending coronary artery known as the widow maker, that stents were not feasible, that I was being scheduled for emergency quintuple bypass surgery, but that I would be fine and discharged in a week. I reassured my wife and daughter and went off to surgery.
I began to awaken from the surgery two weeks later. I was in a semiconscious, hallucinatory, delusional state for another week after that. My wife told me that, while the surgery went perfectly well, the doctors decided to keep me intubated on the ventilator another day or so in order to reduce some swelling in my heart. During that extra time on the ventilator, I contracted bacterial pneumonia, sometimes known as hospital pneumonia, which turned out to have been caused by an atypical bacterium that required two different antibiotics to treat. The antibiotics wound up also killing my gut bacteria and I developed a c-diff superbug intestinal infection, requiring yet more antibiotics. I remained on the ventilator all this time.
When I finally regained my senses, a week after awakening, I was so weak that I could't feed myself or stand, let alone walk. I was sent to a rehab hospital for an additional three weeks, where I made remarkable daily progress. That progress continued when I finally arrived home, six weeks after surgery, and began a walking and outpatient rehab program. In another six weeks, I was back in the gym lifting weights again. I am now 70 years old, back at the gym (until covid) lifting, doing bodyweight workouts and cardio. I'm doing the same, now, either at home or un the public park, feeling like Jack Lalanne 2.0.
I'm here to tell you that complications, bad ones, happen, but we can and do survive and even thrive. Good luck to your mom and to you and your whole family, who I know are going through the same hell of uncertainty and unwelcome surprises that my wife and daughter experienced. I wish you all strength, renewed health, peace and love.
Ira
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Ira Reid
Hoboken NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-14-2020 13:35
From: Jennifer Finklea
Subject: Mitral Valve Repair Surgery with Complications
Hi all,
My mom went into surgery at 8 a.m. on Wednesday 8/12 for a mitral valve repair. She's had a heart murmur for years, and it was time to get it fixed. She is a 63 year old female considered healthy. The surgeon was also aware of an aortic aneurysm. He's been aware of it for the last 2 years and said it was so small he just wanted to call it an enlarged aorta.
My mom was put on bypass for the maze procedure and mitral valve repair and when they took her off, the aneurysm burst. I suppose it couldn't have happened at a better time, because they were already in there. They were technically done with the surgery at 12:15, but it took another 3-4 hours for them to get control of the bleeding. My mom was released to the ICU and 2.5 hours later, they took her back into surgery to drain blood. They brought her back into the ICU, then 7 hours later, they had to open her up again to drain blood because her blood pressure dropped. That was yesterday morning at 4:30 a.m. Her blood pressure has remained more stable since the last surgery. They have left her open (taped shut) at this point.
They are keeping her in a medically induced comma until the swelling begins to go down and she's more stable. Yesterday, concern developed about her kidneys as they are not functioning. Today her potassium and lactic acids have gone down slightly, but they're considering a gentle form of dialysis as there's no kidney improvement.
This is not at all what we were expecting... She was supposed to have a 4-7 day hospital stay. She was supposed to be out of the ICU by now... I guess the aortic aneurysm put a wrench in things. I'm just so worried. Wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience and can offer any encouragement.
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Thanks!
Jen
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