The doctors think that around the beginning of July David had a heart attack and didn't realize it. This left his heart muscles raw and an artery in his sternum bleeding. While at Falconridge Folk Festival on Sat (July 24) am he was in pain and had pressure and was rushed by ambulance to neaby town of Great Barrington where they gave him some anti coagulants (sp?) and sent him to Baystate Medical Cardiac Unit, in Springfield, Ma. There they put a shunt in an artery and he was doing well- sitting up talking, calling people. That night things got worse- they decided that his kidneys were too stressed and they thought a balloon pump would increase the blood flow too them, getting them more oxygen and help them function better. When they went in to surgery he was worse so they sedated him and put him on a ventilator and dialysis. 5-8hrs later- because cat scans showed blood in his (heart sack, lungs and stomach) they performed open heart surgery and looked for a tear or rupture in his heart wall. They found none and they put in the balloon pump. At 3 am Mon they again went in due to the fact that he was still bleeding- they found a bleeding artery in his sternum area and sutured it and removed the balloon pump. After this operation Tue (July 27) progressed much better- his vitals and numbers were all up and no more bleeding. He was sedated and on machines- waiting until fluids drain and monitoring for the next couple of days. They removed the sedation and it took dad almost 4 days to come out of it. He tolerated turning the vent down and was responding (wiggling toes etc.) and they moved him to an oxygen mask. After a day on that they re-intubated him and put him back on the ventilator because he was too weak-he was working so hard to breathe and not getting enough oxygen. Monday, Aug 9th, they performed a procedure to put a perma cath in under his skin on his upper chest to make dialysis easier and less risk of infection. He was up and feisty when I got there at 9:40. I was able to get some translateable writing and grades for the class he was teaching. While I was there the infectious disease team came by and said he didn't need to see them any more and dad pumped his fist in victory. We also had the trache team come by to explain the procedure they would do in a couple of days. Then we spoke with Dr. Deiton, his lead and original cardiac surgeon, and found out that they would continue to try and wean him from the vent but were not optomistic that it would be successful. After he left dad and I made a deal to put the sugical team out of work too and get off the vent successfully before they planned to do the surgery that gave him about 2 days (another inciting factor was the fact that Chris would be arriving on Saturday to give him what for and he needed to be able to talk back. Tue, Aug 10, on the way to dropping me at the airport they reported good news and bad boy behavior- during the night dad had pulled out his 'a' line (in his hand to check oxygen and gas levels in the blood quickly) and that they had taken him off the vent and he was doing well on the mask. He was really tired that evening from breathing all day but doing it successfully and getting enough oxygen- he was swallowing water and applesauce and they didn't even schedule the swallow test they just moved him on down to a smaller mask. So great Job pops! You should now be caught up to the posts from when Margs started the blog. He is currently still in CICU and still needs dialysis because his kidneys are not working well enough (diabetees and trauma from this) he also has a hernia but they will not fix that until after all of this is clearly under control since it is a long operation on full anesthesia- Dr. Deiton said as long as there was no pain or danger they would prefer for hime to go through rehab and then come back later for the abdominal surgery. We all know how 'healthy' Dad was how he ate such nutritious meals, exercised and didn't over work himself at all!!! Ha, Ha. Hopefully this time will be the wake up call to slow down and take care of himself instead of others. Sorry this wasn't posted by breakfast Marion Life got in the way- should have just published the beginning for you- but fell asleep with Ella. Cheers to all and thanks again we cannot express how wonderful it is to hear all the stories and good wishes from everyone. Each person we talk to we learn more about what a great guy our dad is. posted by Nette
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