Alex Sakes: Heart Surgery Bills

Alex is a well-loved 26 year old professional photographer, & community activist located in Arlington, Virginia who had to undergo the nightmare of an emergency second open heart surgery earlier this month due to a deadly bacterial infection (known as Endocarditis) found on his initial replacement heart valve first installed in 2017 due to complications resulting his extremely premature birth.

This bacterial infection was further complicated by Alex going into Complete Heart Block in the days leading up to his surgery, which could have easily led to a fatal heart attack.

As a result of surgery compilations stemming from the installation of his new and permanent metallic heart valve in January 2023, Alex had to spend over two weeks in the Cardiac Unit at Virginia Hospital Center to have both an internal dual chamber pacemaker installed and a PICC line inserted so he could go home with 24/7 antibiotics for the next 6-8 weeks to fight off any potential further infection.

It is a miracle that Alex was able to get to the hospital on January 10th, or else our Arlington community (and Alex's loved ones far and wide) would be reading his obituary instead of this update.

During his first surgery at 21 years of age in 2017, Alex was fortunate, due to the ACA, to be able to remain on his parent's healthcare plan and not have to take on a personal financial loss. Now that Alex has his own health insurance, he is faced with a variety of bills due to tests, three procedures & various extensive home healthcare needs such as a home health aid, physical therapists, and more until at-least mid-March of this year.

Even with insurance, this will not be a pleasant experience for him and his family, particularly as Alex is going to lose at least three months of income until he is fully medically cleared to resume taking on photography clientele later this year.

If you would be so kind as to pitch in and help ease the stress and anxiety of Alex's pending and unknown medical bills, he would be incredibly honored. He gives so much to our community - the least we can do is make this incredible hurdle in his life a bit more bearable in the days and weeks ahead for him and his family.