Help Igor Guberman's Fight Against Heart Failure

Dear Family and Friends:

Today I am reaching out on behalf of my father. For those of you who know Igor Guberman (Steve is what he likes to go by), we all can attest to his big heart. He is a father of four boys, Shai 16, Sammy 18, Sean 26 and Andy 31. Our father has been battling Stage 4 Chronic Congestive Heart Failure for just over a year now and has pretty much been living in and out of hospitals since, living on borrowed time! Last year in March we were told that he had only 2 weeks to 2 months left to live. Thanks to the amazing team of doctors at Valley Presbyterian, and UCLA they found a way to extend his life by implanting a continuous intravenous trial treatment of pharmaceutical infusions which was a temporary solution.

On May 17th of 2024 our father got very sick and ended up back in the hospital once again fighting for his life. A Doctor Who has been treating our father kept fighting on his behalf to get him transferred to UCLA for an evaluation for an LVAD surgery. When he was transferred to UCLA we got a phone call saying he needed emergency surgery. A balloon was placed inside to keep the right side of his heart pumping so that blood can flow and keep his heart working. On July 23rd he was finally approved for the LVAD open heart surgery. Lifesaving and terrifying all in one, because as they open our dad’s chest to insert this pump, the risk is great that he may not even make it through! July 25th our father had the surgery with less than 24 hours notice. Thankfully the surgery went well, he is in intensive care recovering and we are hopeful that he will continue to recover and get stronger. But now is when the tough part only begins. Sean and I have taken a leave from our jobs and as the oldest sons we will be taking turns caring for our father. He will need 24-hour care and monitoring for the first 6 months or so after the surgery, making sure no infection develops and transporting to and from doctor appointments 2-3 times a week, not to mention personal care!  

This is a huge task and we would never be making this page if it truly wasn’t of dire need. We need to try and raise as much as we can to get our Dad housing, medication not covered by insurance, personal care items, and anything else he may need in this New Chapter Of His Life. We are waiting for Social Security to be approved (which can take a year or longer for full benefits to be approved) Our dad was given an incredible chance at life thanks to the incredible team at UCLA and with everyone’s help we are hoping to be able to provide him with a start to this second chance at life. Our dad was given an incredible opportunity at life.

Please look deep into your hearts, anything you can do to help would be immensely appreciated by all of us!! There is no gift of generosity that’s too small! On behalf of myself and my brothers, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts!!!