On Friday night, Peg passed out at Walmart in Sauk Centre. The ambulance brought her to Sauk Centre ER. She was having chest pain. They ruled out a stroke and heart attack and they sent her home after midnight. Saturday she was tired and continued to have chest pain. The ambulance was called as she started having worsening chest pain by evening. She was taken to Melrose and transported to St. Cloud Hospital thinking she was having a STEMI (heart attack). Further testing on Sunday revealed that she had a tear in her aorta (the main artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body) with blood collecting outside of the heart. She was airlifted to the U of M Hospital for emergent open heart surgery to repair the aorta. She had a successful surgery and is currently recovering in the ICU for a few days. After that they will need to keep her hospitalized 7-10 days with full recovery taking roughly 3 months.

When we talked with the surgeon post op, she mentioned that only roughly 8-10% of patients with a similar tear as hers are able to have their body clot the blood to allow enough time for surgery. When she went down on Friday and the tear likely happened, she prayed for God to protect her. It's a miracle she's alive!

We would love to take the financial burden off of them so they can both focus on her healing instead of worry about day to day expenses, lost wages and their deductible.