The good news: Fred has a new heart. After many years of battling congestive heart failure, multiple surgeries, frequent shuttling in and out of the hospital, and worsening long-term prospects, a heart transplant is the best possible outcome for Fred and his family. He's going to have the kind of quality of life he hasn't had for years. 

Fred's most recent medical ordeal began on New Year's Eve, when his implanted defibrillator shocked him, prompting a hospitalization and a round of surgeries that took a toll on his already-weakened heart. Since then, he has spent most of the year hospitalized at New York Presbyterian, with transplant looking ever more likely as his condition worsened. 

Late at night on Saturday, April 6, Fred and his wife Josephine got the word that there was a donor heart available that looked like a good match. By Sunday morning, the team at New York Presbyterian had him prepped for surgery. Since then, Fred has been making an amazing recovery. 


Now the hard part has begun: Making it through that critical first year.

After you receive a major organ transplant, everything changes. Suddenly your life revolves around medical monitoring. Foods you used to love are now off-limits. Under the influence of powerful immunosuppressant drugs, your health becomes a delicate balance between infection and rejection. Too much suppression of the immune system, and you're vulnerable to fungal and bacterial infections. Too little, and your body begins to attack the new heart that's keeping you alive. 

When Fred gets home from the hospital, he and Josephine are going to have to profoundly reorganize their lives. Their beautiful old Victorian home in upstate New York, complete with its typical Catskills basement full of dampness and spiders, will have to be gone through top to bottom to make it a safe place for an immunocompromised person to live. For some time, they'll have to live in Manhattan, close to Fred's cardiac team at New York Presbyterian, while Josephine commutes to her job upstate in Delhi, New York. There will be new medical supplies to purchase and expenses both foreseen and unforeseen, on top of those the family has already racked up over the long months that Fred has been in the hospital.


People who know Fred will be unsurprised to hear that throughout his long ordeal, he has been witty and philosophical, charming nurses with on-the-spot tune compositions and dropping Buckaroo Banzai references with excellent comic timing. Given the physical suffering he's endured, that kind of good humor and equanimity is no small feat. We -- his family and friends -- are heartened (drumroll please) by his optimism and courage. We want to get him home so he can get back to the life he's been missing out on all year, and we are deeply grateful for your support in helping to make that happen.

#FredHeartFund