My name is Vijay, and I’m writing this with a heart full of hope and fear. My father, Balasaheb, has been in the ICU at Swedish Hospital in Seattle for over 50 days, fighting for his life after a massive heart attack.
My parents came to the U.S. a few months ago on a tourist visa to visit me. We had a beautiful summer together — full of laughter and family moments. But one evening, my father suddenly felt severe chest pain. Within minutes, everything changed. We rushed him to urgent care, and soon after, he was taken by ambulance to Overlake Hospital in Bellevue, Seattle.
There, doctors found a major blockage in his heart and performed an emergency procedure. Although they saved his life, the heart attack left a 16 mm hole in his heart, a rare and dangerous complication called Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD). Doctors told us to prepare for the worst, but by God’s grace, he survived and later underwent an 8-hour open-heart surgery at Swedish Hospital to close the hole.
Since then, his heart has struggled to recover. He’s been completely dependent on mechanical devices — first a balloon pump, and now an Impella heart pump — just to keep him alive. Despite the doctors’ best efforts, his condition remains critical. The only long-term options left are a heart transplant or an LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device) — procedures that are not possible for him to receive here due to medical and financial limitations.
Doctors have advised us to take him back to India, where he can continue treatment and have a chance at survival. The only safe way to transport him is through a specialized air ambulance equipped with critical care medical staff and life-support systems — a journey that costs nearly USD 300,000.
We are a small family doing everything we can, but this amount is far beyond our reach. Every dollar, every share, and every prayer means the world to us.
Please help us bring my father home to India so he can continue his fight for life. Your kindness could give him the chance to live — and give our family hope again.