Help Will Recover After Unexpected Heart Attack

On December 7th, Will and I sat down to dinner on what we thought would be another regular night. A few bites in, Will said that he wasn’t feeling well and needed to lie down on the couch. He asked me to take his blood pressure, which was 173/117, or Level 3 Hypertension. He said that he was having pains that felt like a grown adult was standing on his chest and that his shoulders began to ache. These are all signs of a heart attack, so we called 911 and Will was rushed to the hospital where he spent the night in the ER.

The next morning, Will was brought in to have a catheter put up through his groin and into his heart where they discovered two collapsed arteries and several blood clots. The doctor placed two stents in Will’s heart to help the arteries stay open so that the blood can flow freely. About three minutes after the procedure, Will said that the pain in his chest returned with more intensity than it had the night before. They quickly rushed him back into OR to see that one of the stents had collapsed, resulting in a massive heart attack. While the doctor was working to fix that one, the second stent collapsed. A third stent was then placed in Will’s heart, telescoping off of one of the other stents. Things were once again under control, and a temporary balloon pump was added to help take some of the pressure off his heart so that it could recover from the severe distress that it had been in.

The original procedure was only supposed to take about 30-60 minutes, but with the complications, the two procedures combined ended up being about six hours. Will was only under partial sedation, so he was awake and mostly aware of what was going on the entire time. Towards the end, he had several panic attacks while he was on the table and will need some time to heal emotionally from the trauma that he just experienced.

Will spent the rest of Wednesday resting under 24 hour observation but it was hard to regulate his body temperature between shivering, sweating and vomiting, and he was not yet able to hold any liquids down. The length of the surgeries required mass amounts of intravenous medication which resulted in acidifying his stomach. Thursday was a better day, although it started with some complications as well. The balloon pump catheter was removed from his groin, and because of all of the blood thinners that Will was on, it took upwards of 3 hours and several nurses to stop the bleeding from the insertion site.

Once that was under control, Will was able to rest and eat some light food, but he was running a low fever and his blood pressure was a little higher than it should be. Will was finally released from the hospital Sunday afternoon.

The good news is that Will’s cardiologist is expecting a full recovery. He said that while Will did have several heart attacks and one major heart attack, minimal damage was done to the heart because they were able to get him right back onto the operating table so quickly the second time. Will is making physical progress every day, but his recovery will take some time. Cardiac rehab, medications, and several doctor follow ups will be needed.

While Will thankfully has worked lined up for when he is recovered, he will be out of work for several weeks to months, depending on how his recovery process goes. I am teaching as much as I can and am actively working to obtain some new private students and corporate clients, but still need to be available to help Will as needed. As two freelancers, when we don’t work, we don’t get paid, and at this time we are not eligible for unemployment. With the added cost of Will’s medical bills and medications, I am unable to handle everything on my own at this time and could use a little bit of help through this.

If you can spare even a tiny bit please consider giving. Any amount is intensely and graciously appreciated. If you’re not in a place to give at this time, we ask that you please share this. Above all else, we are grateful Will is still with us with a bright future to look forward to. Thank you for reading, and thank you for being in our lives.