Amanda’s Essay

I have two experiences with heart warriors. My husbands heart attack and my son's open heart surgery.

January 4th 2013, Brian had his heart attack in the middle of twin city highway when walking to Degraff. He had to be rushed to Buffalo General. After his arrival to Buffalo General and he had all the testing that was needed for them to stabilize him, they found that he only had seven percent heart function and five percent kidney function. Brian was in the ICU, a doctor came in to tell him, he needs dialysis, without it, he would only live six months.

He was there for two and a half weeks. It was hard for me to deal with a full time job and trying to find a babysitter for three kids and having Brian on my mind. I did the paperwork for him to go on Disability and have medical insurance to pay for the hospital bills and everything else he would need after discharge. It is very emotionally stressful for me to see a loved one go through something like this. For example, the night he came home was very sad and happy all in one. I was sad to see him looking as though he aged 10 years with pale skin and white hair as if the life was sucked out of him.

The other difficult situation I have had to adjust to but, was more prepared for, was my son’s surgery. He was born with three holes in his heart and when we consulted with the pediatric cardiologist he said it was common and that he will be fine. July 4th 2014 he became very sick with pneumonia and stayed at Children's Hospital for three days. He was scheduled for an Angiogram. The results showed that one of the three holes was causing the most damage. PFO did close. The ASD was closing but the VSD was making his heart work twice as hard and become enlarged also causing damage to his pulmonary arteries in his lungs. It was as if they were curling up when they are actually supposed to branch out like trees. That was the moment when we found out he was for certain going to need the corrective surgery. A day and a half after surgery, he was allowed to get out of bed to walk around. He didn’t want to walk; he wanted to run! I couldn’t get him to go back to the room because he was already tired of sitting in the bed all day. It was especially hard to keep him from moving around the wrong way because of the drainage tube he had in his chest was like an internal leash. We finally got to go home the day before Christmas Eve.

Despite all of that, they both managed to pull through brilliantly. They are two most incredible people I have the pleasure to know and love.