Andrew’s Heart Failure Journey
Donation protected
Hi friends and family, I’m posting on behalf of my brother Andrew while he is in the MICU at Erlanger in Chattanooga. I will try to explain all the details as best I can remember.. as this all happened so quickly. 
SHORT VERSION OF ANDREW’S STORY: Andrew has been on life support since Friday due to heart failure in addition to having fluid in the lungs and is still being monitored but moving in the right direction. 
We got to Manchester, TN Wednesday morning 6/14 for a music festival and we all were enjoying our time with friends listening to music, and radiating positivity with everyone around us.
Thursday 6/15 we got to enjoy more of our favorite artists and Andrew was so excited to see one of his favorite EDM artists, Zeds Dead. We had so much fun that night, and it felt surreal.
Friday 6/16 we all woke up and started our day off chilling with our friends and eventually made our way back into “centeroo” to go see and listen to more artists playing. Andrew had mentioned he kept feeling like he needed to burp, had some tight feeling in his chest/sternum & had felt bloated. We thought it may have been indigestion mixed with constipation so we got some tums to try and help with the uncomfortableness, and told him to drink plenty of water. We made sure to keep an eye on him. It was around Friday evening that Andrew told us the chest and abdominal pain was really concerning him and he did not feel well at all. It got to the point where he said it was hurting him to walk. So, my boyfriend and I made the decision to go to the festival’s medical tent to make sure he was ok. This is where things started to get very serious.
Friday 6/16: At the medical tent, Andrew was hooked up to all the monitors that evaluate your stats. His heart rate was 180bpm and we knew something wasn’t right when we couldn’t get it to come down. The medical team gave him beta blockers to try and get his heart rate down, and tried many other techniques to help get it down. Nothing was working, so we went to the next medical tent to have him assessed further.
Friday 6/16 At the second medical tent, the staff was still monitoring his heart and he began to have a bad cough as well. They were worried about his irregular heart beat and possible AFIB. So, Andrew and I took an ambulance to the hospital that they recommended to go to that was close to the festival, Unity Hopsital. At this hospital, Andrew was still having a really bad cough and started to throw up a pink liquid. He described his pain level to be an 8-9… it was probably worse, but if you know Andrew… you know he tries to stay as tough as possible.
Friday 6/16: He continued to violently throw up, and was having trouble breathing. I didn’t feel very comfortable at this hospital, and didn’t feel like people were moving with any urgency given how serious this situation was. I was in the room with him, the nurse kept popping back in… but I was mainly taking care of him, holding the bag for throw up & getting wipes out of my bag for his face & making sure he was as comfortable as possible. Eventually, they ordered for him to have a CT scan of his lungs. It took a very long time to get the results back, and when they did come back it was found that he had fluid all over his lungs. He still was having a very hard time breathing, and his stats were declining. The doctor was very cold, and kind of rudely told us he was going to try one more thing before intubating him. I stayed with him while he got the last medication, and it made him very loopy… but I was just happy to see him not in as much pain. Shortly after, the doctor made the decision to intubate…. Unfortunately I couldn’t handle watching that, and waited in the waiting room from then on.
Friday 6/16: My mom made her way to Manchester and we sat in the waiting room for hours getting a few updates here and there. We were extremely worried, but didn’t know how serious the situation was at that moment. Lots happened in between that time and when we found out he NEEDED to be transferred to Erlanger around 4am, it roughly took 8 hours to get him transferred in a life flight helicopter.
Saturday morning 6/17: his condition when he got on the helicopter was EXTREMELY critical but he did make it to Erlanger, which I wasn’t sure would happen. When he got to Erlanger, he did code but they were able to resuscitate him. They are taking great care of him here, and he has made a ton of improvement. We got a scan on his brain, since his oxygen levels at Unity were critical for so long and the scans looked OK, but his eyes were unresponsive. We got a call Saturday evening with great news, honestly a miracle, that he was opening his eyes and was responsive.
Fast forward to today, Sunday 6/16, he is still making great progress. My mom and I were able to see him open his eyes, and he held our hands. We can tell he can hear us. He is having to be heavily sedated, to keep him comfortable while he is intubated. They are doing tests on his lungs and heart today to try and figure out some more answers of what he is dealing with and how to treat it properly. We are continually hoping and having faith that he will keep making more progress, but we know this is going to be a long, exhausting journey.
Anyone who knows Andrew, knows he is a fighter & I KNOW he will get through this.
If you feel moved to support Andrew and our family with the medical costs, you can donate here through our gofundme. Thoughts and prayers are needed and so appreciated as well. Andrew is a fighter and we are going to get through this together. I will post updates as often as I can. Thank you everyone ❤️ 
SHORT VERSION OF ANDREW’S STORY: Andrew has been on life support since Friday due to heart failure in addition to having fluid in the lungs and is still being monitored but moving in the right direction. 
We got to Manchester, TN Wednesday morning 6/14 for a music festival and we all were enjoying our time with friends listening to music, and radiating positivity with everyone around us.
Thursday 6/15 we got to enjoy more of our favorite artists and Andrew was so excited to see one of his favorite EDM artists, Zeds Dead. We had so much fun that night, and it felt surreal.
Friday 6/16 we all woke up and started our day off chilling with our friends and eventually made our way back into “centeroo” to go see and listen to more artists playing. Andrew had mentioned he kept feeling like he needed to burp, had some tight feeling in his chest/sternum & had felt bloated. We thought it may have been indigestion mixed with constipation so we got some tums to try and help with the uncomfortableness, and told him to drink plenty of water. We made sure to keep an eye on him. It was around Friday evening that Andrew told us the chest and abdominal pain was really concerning him and he did not feel well at all. It got to the point where he said it was hurting him to walk. So, my boyfriend and I made the decision to go to the festival’s medical tent to make sure he was ok. This is where things started to get very serious.
Friday 6/16: At the medical tent, Andrew was hooked up to all the monitors that evaluate your stats. His heart rate was 180bpm and we knew something wasn’t right when we couldn’t get it to come down. The medical team gave him beta blockers to try and get his heart rate down, and tried many other techniques to help get it down. Nothing was working, so we went to the next medical tent to have him assessed further.
Friday 6/16 At the second medical tent, the staff was still monitoring his heart and he began to have a bad cough as well. They were worried about his irregular heart beat and possible AFIB. So, Andrew and I took an ambulance to the hospital that they recommended to go to that was close to the festival, Unity Hopsital. At this hospital, Andrew was still having a really bad cough and started to throw up a pink liquid. He described his pain level to be an 8-9… it was probably worse, but if you know Andrew… you know he tries to stay as tough as possible.
Friday 6/16: He continued to violently throw up, and was having trouble breathing. I didn’t feel very comfortable at this hospital, and didn’t feel like people were moving with any urgency given how serious this situation was. I was in the room with him, the nurse kept popping back in… but I was mainly taking care of him, holding the bag for throw up & getting wipes out of my bag for his face & making sure he was as comfortable as possible. Eventually, they ordered for him to have a CT scan of his lungs. It took a very long time to get the results back, and when they did come back it was found that he had fluid all over his lungs. He still was having a very hard time breathing, and his stats were declining. The doctor was very cold, and kind of rudely told us he was going to try one more thing before intubating him. I stayed with him while he got the last medication, and it made him very loopy… but I was just happy to see him not in as much pain. Shortly after, the doctor made the decision to intubate…. Unfortunately I couldn’t handle watching that, and waited in the waiting room from then on.
Friday 6/16: My mom made her way to Manchester and we sat in the waiting room for hours getting a few updates here and there. We were extremely worried, but didn’t know how serious the situation was at that moment. Lots happened in between that time and when we found out he NEEDED to be transferred to Erlanger around 4am, it roughly took 8 hours to get him transferred in a life flight helicopter.
Saturday morning 6/17: his condition when he got on the helicopter was EXTREMELY critical but he did make it to Erlanger, which I wasn’t sure would happen. When he got to Erlanger, he did code but they were able to resuscitate him. They are taking great care of him here, and he has made a ton of improvement. We got a scan on his brain, since his oxygen levels at Unity were critical for so long and the scans looked OK, but his eyes were unresponsive. We got a call Saturday evening with great news, honestly a miracle, that he was opening his eyes and was responsive.
Fast forward to today, Sunday 6/16, he is still making great progress. My mom and I were able to see him open his eyes, and he held our hands. We can tell he can hear us. He is having to be heavily sedated, to keep him comfortable while he is intubated. They are doing tests on his lungs and heart today to try and figure out some more answers of what he is dealing with and how to treat it properly. We are continually hoping and having faith that he will keep making more progress, but we know this is going to be a long, exhausting journey.
Anyone who knows Andrew, knows he is a fighter & I KNOW he will get through this.
If you feel moved to support Andrew and our family with the medical costs, you can donate here through our gofundme. Thoughts and prayers are needed and so appreciated as well. Andrew is a fighter and we are going to get through this together. I will post updates as often as I can. Thank you everyone ❤️ 
Organiser
Emily Troxell
Organiser
Woodstock, GA