As many of you know, my brother was born with a complex heart defect - Tetralogy of Fallot. He had his first heart surgery to place a Blalock shunt at 6 weeks old and a full open heart repair at 16 months old. He was fairly stable until he was 4 years old when he developed a dangerous arrhythmia requiring placement of a pacemaker. At age 11, he suffered a stroke related to a new onset of AFIB caused by complications from his previous open heart repair. He was able to recover with no physical deficits, but he has remained on blood thinners ever since due to his increased risk of stroke. Over the past 14 years he has needed to undergo multiple cardioversions (heart shocks) for additional episodes of AFIB and has undergone 3 pacemaker replacements due to battery issues as well an ablation of his heart to try to stop the arrhythmias.

Christopher is now 26 years old - one of the older patients who have survived the defect he was born with. New testing over several months have showed #1, he is in heart failure and #2, he needed a pacemaker replacement along with lead replacement. At his pre-op appointment today he was informed that his heart is so damaged that they can no longer just replace his pacemaker.. he now needs an ICD which is a larger implantable device which can shock his heart in the event of a dangerous heart rhythm or a cardiac arrest. Additionally, he will now need lead replacement which involves lasering out the leads that were placed ten years ago. This has gone from a simple outpatient procedure to a much more risky procedure involving general anesthesia as well as a full cardiac team on standby in case they need to open his chest due to complications. THIS was not expected…. He already knew he had two other surgeries, including an ablation and a heart valve replacement, scheduled between now and July. Riley Hospital is even taking him back as an adult patient due to the complexity of his heart issues. In the end, the only real solution will be a heart transplant but thankfully we are not quite there yet.

Christopher works full time as an optician - he loves his job and works hard to pay his mounting bills every month. This unexpected additional time off was not planned, and he has no savings to cover any extra time off right now. Groceries, car payment for his “purple people eater”, insurance, medications, gas.. all those things are at risk of not being paid as he will need time off to recover from this surgery. If you are able and willing to help out with this, please know anything raised over the goal will be used to help cover his costs during his next two surgeries over the next four months. This first risky surgery is happening on Thursday, less than 48 hours away. If you are unable to help, please just send all your good thoughts, prayers, vibes.. whatever you can send. Christopher, our Bubby.. he has lived this life of heart issues for so long and we just need him to be OKAY, we need him to be able to heal and rest without worrying about financial issues. Thank you for reading this far…. Send our Bubby some love!