Help Jamie & Sam Fix Prince's Broken Heart...

Everyone that has known Sam or Jamie over the last several years knows that their son Prince is never too far behind nor far from their hearts.  As if this last year wasn't hard enough with career and job changes and resulting moves between San Francisco, New York, Denver, Chicago, Covid struggles with mental and physical health, unemployment, underemployment...we now are facing some major hurdles with Prince's heart health. If you can donate, we love you and cannot thank you enough. If you cannot donate, we love you and understand. It is hard to be in this position, but we need our community to help us out if possible. We value loving thoughts and kind outreach as well. Help doesn't only come in financial form.

Prince is our rock. His emotional support has kept us going at times this year during the pandemic. Prince might as well be the Mayor of our small upstate NY town. He can turn the saddest person into a smiling spirit. Prince helps both Sam and I immensely with the heavy things in our life as his love and snuggles are endless. I'm super proud to be Prince’s Dad and it's amazing watching the love my partner has for Prince as well. With Sam being a Flight Attendant, he is gone 50-60% of the time from home and I can't imagine even one silent night without Prince's snorting and passing gas. He is my thermal blanket when it's cold. He keeps the floors clean and he just brings joy wherever he goes. To my parents,  Prince has become their furry grandson and they treat him with so much love.

A few months ago we noticed that Prince was starting to faint and wet himself whenever he became too excited to see other people or his Dad's when they would get home from work or from flying.  After consulting with a few local CNY vets and worsening severity and frequency of collapsing we had to take him to the Veterinary Medical Center of CNY one morning when he collapsed and couldn't get back up. After a full day of  $2100 worth of EKG's, Echocardiograms, bloodwork and lots of other workup, sadly Prince was diagnosed with two severe heart issues that in brief would only give him about a year to live comfortably. Considering that Prince is still only 6 years old and the tremendous amount of love we have for him, letting him go just isn't an option. 

Sadly, these last few months with his heart issue worsening, he just isn't the same dog we know as he struggles for oxygen to his body and to stay conscious. His fainting spells and associated urination accidents are just so devastating to see and it's hard to contain the mess in time and keep him from hitting his head. 

In March we were referred to Cornell University for a specialized Balloon valvuloplasty procedure that has a 90% chance of getting Prince back to the dog we have always know the last 6 years. Success rates are high for this so it is worth the $5000 investment. It's such a hard call, but when you face something as grave as a failing heart, you just do what you need to do but we cannot do this without support. A few months ago when Prince started having these fainting spells we suspected something serious underlining things and so we took out an excellent insurance policy on him. Long story short, they completely denied his claim payout due to inadequate length of time the policy was in place before making a claim. Due to our honesty with the observed fainting spells, our claim was denied, leaving us with a $2100 first bill that we had to pay cash for out of pocket on top of the nearly $5400 surgery next week they they will not cover due to his condition being considered as pre existing. This has been a huge hit to us in addition to just being sad and painful news. 

We are launching a GoFundMe today to help as much as possible before the surgery this week. In addition we are urgently exploring and applying for as many grants as possible including:

Paws 4 A Cure 
The Big Hearts Fund 
CareCap 
The Pet Fund
Brown Dog Foundation 
United States Department of Veteran Affairs 
The Mosby Foundation 
CareCredit.com

Describe the animal's injury or illness. How did the injury occur?

Prince has been diagnosed with Pulmonic stenosis when in brief is a congenital heart issue not uncommon in purebred French Bulldogs. He has had this issue since he was born but in his youth and healthy existence, his body was able to compensate until he hit middle aged. Pulmonic stenosis in brief is the firming up of the leaflets in the valve area between the right ventricle and atrium. As this tissue firms up it causes a murmur and additionally major reduction in blood flow. The right side of the heart is instrumental in getting the oxygenated blood out to the body and so with a 90% reduction in flow, when he gets excited seeing people he loves and strangers alike, and after he plays hard or walks too far, his poor little body and brain don't get the oxygen they need to keep him conscious. Within seconds he collapses and as of lately he often loses control of his bladder. The episodes were very short for a few months, only 15-30 seconds, but recently they have been more frequent and keep him down on the ground longer and longer. Due to the damage to the right side of the heart, he has developed severe ventricular arrhythmia which after several days of EKG read indicated that almost 25% of his day is spent in severe tachycardia which is light a lightning storm in his heart causing stops in the beating for moments and irregular rhythm that is causing the oxygen flow to be reduced even more. The arrhythmia could enter into an extended time and result in cardiac arrest and sudden death. We are keeping him calm and happy until the surgery and we were fortunate to find a beta blocker after some unpleasant experimentation that has worked to stabilize him more before his procedure on May 6, 2021.  Our hope is that within a few weeks he will be climbing the Adirondack high peaks again with his dads and putting the wonderful loving energy he has behind his failing heart right now.

Describe the circumstances that are keeping the applicant from being able to afford the animal’s treatment. 

 Under most normal circumstances when my partner and I are employed full time in our careers, the ability of affording a nearly $8000 series of medical bills for our little 7 year old french bulldog would be more realistic. However, this year for us, like many, was full of one setback after the next which has put us in a space where we just can't afford much more than food, rent, car and the list of life expenses that are even a struggle more often than not this year. Last year in March, my partner and I decided to leave our lives of nearly 20 years in California and move back home to my home in upstate NY to be closer to my family during the pandemic and to settle down and build a home and a future here. I am a high school science teacher and want to give back to the school system that prepared me with knowledge and skills to be successful in most anything I ventured into (outside of this last covid year).  Additionally my NYS credential did not clear from my transfer in California before the school year started in the fall so I am left waiting until this all. Prospects look wonderful and interviews are flowing but it has been hard not having income and we burned through all savings, but it kept us alive. 

Describe the animal's injury or illness. How did the injury occur?*

Prince has been diagnosed with Pulmonic stenosis when in brief is a congenital heart issue not uncommon in purebred French Bulldogs. He has had this issue since he was born but in his youth and healthy existence, his body was able to compensate until he hit middle aged. Pulmonic stenosis in brief is the firming up of the leaflets in the valve area between the right ventricle and atrium. As this tissue firms up it causes a murmur and additionally major reduction in blood flow. The right side of the heart is instrumental in getting the oxygenated blood out to the body and so with a 90% reduction in flow, when he gets excited seeing people he loves and strangers alike, and after he plays hard or walks too far, his poor little body and brain don't get the oxygen they need to keep him conscious. Within seconds he collapses and as of lately he often loses control of his bladder. The episodes were very short for a few months, only 15-30 seconds, but recently they have been more frequent and keep him down on the ground longer and longer. Due to the damage to the right side of the heart, he has developed severe ventricular arrhythmia which after several days of EKG read indicated that almost 25% of his day is spent in severe tachycardia which is light a lightning storm in his heart causing stops in the beating for moments and irregular rhythm that is causing the oxygen flow to be reduced even more. The arrhythmia could enter in to an extended time and result in cardiac arrest and sudden death. We are keeping him calm and happy until the surgery and we were fortunate to find a beta blocker after some unpleasant experimentation that has worked to stabilize him more before his procedure. Our hope is that within a few weeks he will be climbing the Adirondack high peaks again with his dads and putting the wonderful loving energy he has behind his failing heart right now.

Again, if you can help us, we love you and are forever grateful. If you cannot, we love you and understand. 

Much Love & Gratitude,
Jamie, Sam, Prince (and the rest of our family too)