James, My husband went to the ER 4/7/2021 with shortness of breath and chest pains. NEVER would I have thought that I would get a call telling me that they was admitting him in the hospital, and him telling me he is in congestive heart failure. YES, a 38 year old in congestive heart failure. His Dr also stated that if he was to wait 2 more days to come in to the ER, He could very well not be with us today. Fast forward a couple days, he is transfered to a heart hospital, all tests ran, and he needs a valve replacement and a 5cm aneurysm repaired and his heart is only functioning at 15%. He went into the operation room, and another problem happened. The catheter wasn't able to be placed, so they had to remove everything, wake him back up, remove his lines from his neck, and his IV in his upper left arm, and had to be transfered to ANOTHER hospital almost 2 hours away to see an Urologist to place a Foley BEFORE the surgery could even start. On 4/14/14/2021 He was able to get the Foley placed and surgery started, What was ONLY suppose to be 2.5 hour surgery ended up being an 7.5 hour surgery. He had calcium not only in the artery that had the aneurysm, but also had went to his one of his chambers. He was in a coma from 4/14-4/17. After they woke him and removed all tubes and such, he had to be put on a Bypass CPAP machine for a day and a half. Today, had been a better day, he got in a chair and stood a couple times, but he is still very weak. He still has drain tubes and a chest tube due to the severe pneumonia he had. In a couple days they will be having to place a pacemaker in. And hopefully he will be able to come home in a week!
With all that being said, we are a one income family, and we don't have health insurance. Not only does the valve replacement/aneurysm repair going to be in the upwards of $350,000 not including the pacemaker, 6 bags of blood, 3 different hospital bills, ambulance bills, urologist, anesthesiologists, physical therapy, BUT he also has 8-12 weeks recovery just to start off, we also have household bills that need to be paid. Rent, electric, phones bills, gas to get him to the aftercare he needs, groceries, everyday household essentials. All the money we had saved was exhausted with hotel rooms for me to stay close to him, food for me (eating out 3 times a day and drinks I found out ISN'T cheap!). I HATE asking for help, but sometimes you have to swallow your pride and do what you have to do to just get by!