Mercy Hospital, Muskegon, MI

Friday, September ?, 2007

It's 3:30 or so and I am sitting bedside in CCU keeping an eye on Dave's readings on the monitor as well as his handsome face. For those of you who don't know the details of Dave's heart attack, I will bring you up to date as best I can, although both my memory and my concentration seem to be jumbled, so not everything will make sense or even be correct.


Lets back up:

On Labor Day, while Dave and I were enjoying our cottage in Grand Haven, I arrived home from a long walk, just as Dave came back from a run. It appears that he might have been jogging on the beach, which he often does in Grand Haven...I hate for him to do it in the heat of the day but he seems to enjoy it.

Dave climbed the 40 or so steps up to our cottage and relaxed on the deck, drinking some soda and some water. He then came in the house and took a shower. While I was watching TV ( with both the noise from the TV and the fan running) I heard a banging noise coming from the upstairs bathroom. It sounded like the vanity doors closing over and over. I headed up the stairs and found Dave on the bathroom floor, covered in sweat, signaling me by closing the vanity door in front of him. He said that he couldn't stop sweating and he was breathing rapidly. I called 911 and started toweling him in cool water, thinking that maybe he had overheated.

I heard the ambulance coming so I ran outside to signal it from the deck, at the same time, our cottage neighbor Julie ran over, heard the news and ran upstairs to help. Julie was a Godsend, and I mean that literally. She is an ER nurse in Chicago and knew how to help the paramedics and what questions to ask Dave. The paramedics did an EKG and strapped Dave into a wheeled chair to take him down the steps to the first floor and then down the 40 or so steps to the street and waiting ambulance...this was not an easy task.

Incredibly,(thank you again God) Louise, our other neighbor, has a "lift" that runs up and down the sand dune, and although she was out of town and I expected it to be locked, I pushed the button and it started! They took Dave down the hill in the lift. Just when they put him in the ambulance, he had a seizure, and now we know, a heart attack. We also now know that they defibrillated him, restarted his heart as they transported him to Grand Haven hospital and then immediately on to Muskegon Mercy where a cardiac team was on hand to catheterize him and insert the new stent.

Another incredible act of God, we did not find out until yesterday that when Dave arrived at the heart facility, a young man who is a physicians assistant named Tim helped prep Dave quickly for surgery - It turns out our both our son Brian and Sarah know this young man and Tim is now one of our many "angels" in Dave's treatment and recovery.

From what Tim tells us, Dave's condition was very serious and the surgeon immediately inserted the balloon and a new stent, allowing blood and oxygen to flow. As they took Dave to Critical Care, Dr. Bravert told me that Dave's condition was very serious and that the heart had been damaged. The artery that was totally blocked is called "the widowmaker". 95% of all people who have a blockage in this artery do not survive - God was with us again and has not left Dave's side. The heart team immediately put Dave into what is called a "hypothermic protocol, where his body is brought into a hibernation state by reducing his body temperature, I believe that he was down around 88 degrees. This is a newer technology that allows the body to direct all of its efforts to reducing a strain on the heart and mending as best it can.

After 24 hours in hibernation,(and total sedation), Dave was allowed to rewarm slowly. The biggest problem became stabilizing his blood pressure which kept dropping dramatically whenever he stirred or was worked on. This was unnerving to say the least and the Drs kept him totally sedated and he was receiving multiple medications to help his heart and circulatory system.We still did not know if there had been significant brain damage as he had not been allowed to come to at all.

Dave's nurses have been fabulous, and again, many miracles. The first Day we were stunned to find that our wonderful day nurse - Wendy - was Kelly Marrs good friend and college roommate! This gave us all a wonderful connection and we felt as if Dave was in the hands of a very capable and caring friend. I really cant say enough about all of the nurses Dave has had and the quality of compassionate care that he, the kids and I have all received. Special heartfelt thanks to Dan, Wendy, Greg, Lisa, Beth, Randi, Tim and Tami. Without these angels we could not have made it this far.

Anyhow, we finally saw Dave's pressure improve and stabilize - a thrilling improvement - and the nurses started backing off on all medications. I think that this was on Friday that we were able to see many of the meds cut back to the point of being very minimal. His heart was beating mostly on its own as with the blood pressure improvement the Dr. removed the balloon pump that was making it easier for Dave's heart to circulate his blood.

But with these improvements came a setback or two - fluid had increased in Dave's lungs and bacteria had been found in his sputum. So, now he was enduring vacuuming of his respiration tube - a difficult thing for him to endure even under sedation as he thrashed against having his lungs flushed and suctioned. Antibiotics were added, and though we had hoped to have his breathing tube removed and sedation cut back by Sat., it didn't happen, in fact by Saturday he had a temperature and the fluid was nasty. Wonderful Wendy thought to put Dave in a special bed which automatically shifts his body on a timed sequence, hopefully helping to dislodge the phlegm so that it could be suctioned. The bed also was put on a "percussion " cycle where the back side of Dave's chest would be "thumped" by the bed, loosening secretions.

Sunday am -
I slept late this morning, knowing that Wendy was back with Dave. I gave her a call before coming in and found that the Dr. had okayed weaning Dave from the respirator and giving him a chance to breathe on his own. So, I rushed in, and Wendy was bring Dave out of the total sedation, allowing him to wake up. The negative is that the respiratory hose goes down the throat to the lungs and feels horrible to the patient, as if they are suffocating. Wendy told me how to try to keep Dave calm and to encourage him to breath through the respirator hose, "like a straw".

The most wonderful gift is that Dave came to, I was able for the first time since labor day to look my Dave in the eyes and know that he recognized me and heard and understood what I was saying! He worked hard at relaxing so that his breathing rate would even out. When asked to, he squeezed my hand and wiggled his toes. He even nodded his head yes and no in correct response to questions. When Sarah and Brian arrived, he was able to do the same for them, answering Bri's question of "Dad, do you want to know the tennis scores?" with a nodded yes and the same response to the question of "Could you hear the Dave Mathews music that we had playing in the Ipod by your ear last night?"

The kids had recorded some Dave Mathews, Dave's favorite band, on a friend's Ipod and the nurse gave us the okay to lay the earphones by his ear in hope that he might be able to hear it...He Did!

After our time interacting with Dave, the nurse decided to remove his breathing tube and sent us from the room with a promise of letting us know in the waiting room when it was completed. It took longer than we had expected, and Wendy was in tears when she came down to tell us that Dave had to be re-intubated. He tried hard to breath well enough without it, but he was really struggling with the fluid in his lungs. Wendy said that he surely didn't want the tube put back, but his shook his head to signal that is what he wanted.

So, even though it is a disappointment, we will happily wait until Dave is ready to try again. Unfortunately, they probably will need to keep him sedated again to keep him comfortable. So, we have had a taste of the wonderful things to come and know that all of our prayers and the prayers of friends, family as well as total strangers have been answered and that we just need to be patient and let God's work be done in his own time, waiting for Dave's body to be ready for the challenge.

I will try to give you more info soon, but for now, I'm going to take a break...KEEP PRAYING! We love you all,
Melody, Sarah and Brian