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Jaime Peter Fuchs OpenHeart Surgery

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Jaime is 34 years old, an award winning artist and graphic designer.  He graduated both Pratt Institute and Ramapo College.  Growing up in Ringwood, NJ he got an appreciation for the outdoors.  He loves to snowboard, hike, wakeboard, swim, travel and ride a four wheeler.  Jaime has two younger brothers, Paul and Steven.  He is presently residing in Austin, Texas with his girlfriend, also an artist.  Together they paint and display their art.   Presently, Jaime cannot hike or ride let alone climb stairs without getting out of breath. 

Jaime wants to live a normal and fulfilling life and I, Carol Fuchs, his mom wants the same for him.  Without this repair of his mitral valve he will not have a normal life.  If he gets a mechanical replacement or a flesh valve, he will be at risk for strokes and surgery every eight years.  I want my son to live, enjoy life, be with his family and share his love of the arts with others.  But I am getting ahead of myself, let me tell you what has happened.

He had a stroke on June 26, 2014.  He survived the stroke  because he was able somehow dial his cell phone to his mother, Carol.  He could not speak words and was not understood.  Carol heard the panic and fear in her son's voice and knew the signs of a stroke.  Even being 34, she thought it possible.  She called 911 in New Jersey, Jaime lives in Austin.  Through the efforts of 911 in New Jersey, who gave her the phone number to call in Austin police.  Due to the quick response from the police, rental office because Carol did not know his new apartment number, ambulance and the doctors and medical staff at Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, Jaime  had a blood clot to the brain but survived with minimal damage. 

After five days Jaime was released.  He was not feeling well, but happy to be home and alive.  At home his hand swelled and his stomach pained him.  He went to the emergency room on July 17th and was admitted because he had another blood clot that hit the spleen and an infection.  He stayed in Seton Northwest for four days and then transferred to Seton Main for eight days of IV antibotics.  On July 20 he went home and received daily IV antibotics for another five weeks.  Jaime has been in and out of the emergeny rooms  since the completion of the antibiotics because of nerve damage, panic attacks, etc.  

Jaime has had numerous echos of the heart and it has been determined that he needs to  have a mitral valve repair  because the infection made a hole in his mitral valve leaflet.  Because of the infection "endocardis" the procedure is one of deliacacy and skill.  If the valve is not repaired then he will have to have a mechanical valve that will require him to be on blood thinners and a risk for more strokes for the rest of his life.  Should he get a flesh valve, that would only last 8 years and then he needs open heart surgery again and again and again.  At 34 years old, his life ahead would seem bleak for he could have another stroke and be permanently damaged.

Dr. David Adams of Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, New York has an 99%, almost 100  success rate.  That is all he does is repair.  He has viewed Jaime's echos and has agreed to do the surgery. Dr. Adams is a superdoctor and can boost this kind of sucess rate.  The doctors in Austin, Texas, where Jaime has his insurance cannot offer the same statistics.  They will try to repair but most oftenly they will replace.  All Dr. Adams does is repair day in and day out.  See his website:

http://www.mountsinai.org/profiles/david-h-adams

or

http://www.mitralvalverepair.org/





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Donations 

  • elliot newhouse
    • $100 
    • 9 yrs
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Organizer

Carol Vigoda Fuchs
Organizer
Little Falls, NJ

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