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Ernie Adams Heart Transplant

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Our Dad just had a heart transplant January 23rd, at Vanderbilt hospital in Nashville. He will need to stay within 45 minutes of the hospital for an additional 4-6 weeks, and our Mom will have to take a leave of absence from work for a couple of months to care for him. This post-surgery period will be very costly, with medical, lodging, food, travel, and aftercare, along with household bills. We hope you can find it in your heart to help our family, as this is his 4th open heart surgery, and there was no time to prepare for this one.
Please keep our Dad in your prayers and know that every little bit will help.

Our Dad's story - Just to give you some background information about the strongest man we know.

In 1992, he was a Sergeant with the Clarksville Police Department. He began having "heart attack" symptoms, so he went to the hospital. From there, he went for his 1st open heart surgery. Little did he know, this would send him down a spiralling path of health complications. This 1st surgery failed after just 2 weeks, causing him to go through the next 12 years of heart caths, stents, special procedures, and disability.

In 2005, he underwent open heart surgery again, hoping for a better quality of life, but that never came. At this point, it was time to find another set of Doctors to help him along his/our journey.  He continued with chest pains, heart attack symptoms, cardiac caths, and even more stents. You see, open heart surgery doesn't always keep you from having stents placed. They harvest veins and put them where arteries, (which act as high pressure tubing), are supposed to feed the heart. This is why open heart surgeries only last so long, because the veins wear out.

So now it's 2018, and time for another open heart surgery, this time at the Cleveland Clinic. We have the best of the best, the #1 heart hospital, but God had other plans....it didn't work. Next step is to get on the transplant list. We go see about two different transplant programs, but they say "No". Our Dad's cardiologist doesn't take No for an answer, so he sends him to Vanderbilt Hospital. Vanderbilt decides to "work him up" for 4 days to see if he's sick enough.

See, a transplant is tricky. You sometimes trade one disease for another, and you have to ask, "is it worth it"? Well, to our Dad, to us, and to Vanderbilt, it IS worth it! So after 2 weeks of meetings and having Vanderbilt deciding his fate, we get the call on January 18th that he made the transplant list. We did it!! At this point, we could be looking at a long waiting process. Our Dad isn't the sickest, but he's sick enough to be placed midway on the list. Around 6 months, they say, so now it's a waiting game.

Well, on January 23rd, around 1:30 in the morning, our Dad's phone rings....it's Vanderbilt, and we have to be at the hospital in 5 hours because they have a heart for him that's a perfect match!! The next 24 hours was insane. Our Dad is doing so well, so far.

Unfortunately, we had no time to prepare for this; no time to save money, personal time, nothing. So we are asking for help for our Dad, and our Mom, who will be staying with him for the next 4-6 weeks in Tennessee.

Our family thanks you for any help you can give, and please continue your prayers and positive thoughts.

Fundraising team: Nena, Heather & Felicia (2)

Nena Adams Byrd
Organizer
Clarksville, IN
Rebecca A. Adams
Beneficiary
Heather Wilson
Team member

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