Gino Rivaras living expenses - Open Heart Surgery

My Dad, Gino, was not feeling good and woke up from his sleep with chest pains and shortness of breath so he went to the Urgent Care where the nurses called an ambulance from the parking lot. He was rushed to the emergency room where the doctors confirmed that he had a heart attack. He was given medicine and reacted to it poorly, his blood pressure was dropping fast.. thankfully he was able to get stabilized quickly. The doctors said he would need a procedure to put stents in to prevent him from having additional heart attacks. After they had it scheduled and they viewed his arteries, they determined it would not work and he would need open heart surgery. They will have to open his chest and repair it with donor arteries from his arm. His surgery will be on Monday 2/26 and is expected to be in the hospital for another week. The surgery will put him out of work for at least 3 months. Unfortunately he was only working part time and is mostly self employed, and in the state of Wisconsin you only get "short term disability" through employers. There is no state program like we have in California. His chest and arm will be cut open and during the recovery time he will not be able to lift more than a few pounds and cannot do any strenuous activity (sorry dad, no golf!) ... We want to make sure his living expenses such a rent and insurances are covered during his healing period. We estimate that anywhere from 3,000-7,000 should be able to cover the mortgage on the house and should be able to help with any out of pocket expenses for his surgery or anything else that comes out of this. My dad has always the most funny and generous person and is always willing to lend a helping hand, it's unfortunate that life can come out this way and we just want to make sure he has the extra help, as the doctors said if he doesn't take it easy after the surgery he will damage the work done and it will not last.

We are so devastated that this has happened but are hopeful for a positive outcome.

We appreciate any and all donations and all the prayers and positive thoughts we have received from our family and friends.

thank you so much for reading and for any donations or shares of this article.

<3 Rivara girls.

VENMO:LINDSAYMRIVARA

2/26 UPDATE:

He was out of surgery at 12

They didn’t let us in until 3 and they didn’t even tell me he was ok until 2:45! So much for text updates. We saw for about 5-10 minutes at 3 to speak with the surgeon.

He was losing some blood during surgery and after but they gave him some medication and some platelets to help stop it.

He’s in the ICU.

They just took him off the ventilator at 5:30 because he was breathing on his own for about 25 min with no problems.

He’s very tired and still out of it, even though they turned the seatives off 4.

I went in at like 5:15 to go give him his give his personal Nurse his phone and glasses, so he’ll be able to see when he wakes up and he heard my voice even though I was whispering and he opened his eyes and kind of got startled. He was very happy to see me. He smiled, and then I told him to go back to sleep. I held his hand until they told me to step out.

I had to step out while they did the ventilator removal. It went smoothly and he was semi conscious and I came back in I held his hand, they let me stay past the visitor break..we so he was squeezing me tight and he mouthed I love you, I kept telling him I was so proud!!

They kicked me out

I just went to go get food and they’ll let me back in at 7.

They said all the blood work was good. Updates to come.

Update #2: Went back at 7:30 pm to check on him. Was still out of it but was opening eyes better than the 5:30 check. Night nurse was in and he was being fit for the full face cpap to use while in recovery.

He woke up for about 15 minute, he saw me, held my hand and squeezed my hand. His voice is gone but he

asked me the time and I said it’s 7:30 pm and he said oh that went by fast I thought it was 7 am. Then he got all nervous and had a realization I missed my flight and was still there. He said wait why are you still here? Your flight? I told him I wasn’t going to leave until I knew he was ok so I moved the flight.

He was dozing in and out and I told him I loved him and how well he did, how the swelling is going down already and the nurse said he’s progressing so well. I told him to go back to sleep and I’d be back in the morning, I felt bad for leaving and I could sleep at the hospital again and he said no its ok and went back to sleep.

The nurse said hes be getting his extra IVs out and extra fluids stopped by tomorrow and would be moved again and they will get him to go in a chair to sit up.

UPDATE 2/27 - he is in a lot of pain, he can barely move or talk. hes very tired. His neck IV and catheter will be coming out today. his breathing is excellent and lungs are looking great.

he has not had any food and just ice chips. they will be doing a very small physical therapy today for movement. hes very tired and has been sleeping most of the day. his eyes are heavy and he isn't opening them much.

he was able to hear 4 of his daughters on a facetime call and he was happy, tears of joy coming out.

thank you all for the support.

update 2/28-3/1

Gino is making amazing progress. he was moved out of the ICU and back to the 3rd floor for recovery.

he is in a lot of pain still but his breathing is doing amazing and he is doing physical therapy to help with walking.

he will be unable to do the basic living essentials such as cooking, cleaning, and driving.. let alone working. we have upped our goal a little bit more to help have additional funds for time off or to help with any assistance he may need to hire.

he is scheduled to discharge from the hospital around the first of March.

thank you for every single donation, prayer, warm thought, sharing of the gofundme, etc. its truly a blessing to have so much help in this big time of need.