Jacob Garza’s Medical Bills and After Care

Hi, I’m Lisa, and I’m fundraising for medical bills and after care for my son Jacob. Many of you may not know Jacobs story. We’ve been quiet about it on social media to give him the most respect during this most difficult time. However, we realize that it’s a much bigger situation than we ever anticipated.

39 days ago Jacob was admitted into the hospital in the ICU from a major heart attack and heart failure. He needed open heart surgery at the age of 29. His heart function was only 20%. A few hours after his initial open heart surgery Jacob’s heart function dropped to 10% and he was placed on a life support device called an Impella heart pump. He was dying.

Jacob was flown via a life flight helicopter to Dallas where he has been receiving life saving treatments ever since.

His story has so many twists and turns. He has gone from 20% heart function to 5% and up to 30% and back down to 10%. He has had a total of 12 surgical operations with 4 of them being open heart. He has been on a total of 3 life support devices and is still not “out of the woods”.

Here’s the scary part, his heart problems came from a birth defect that we didn’t even know he had till his first surgery! He had an abscessed tooth and the infection went into his blood stream. Apparently when you have a blood stream infection that starts in the mouth it’s first stop is your heart! These infections thrive on defective tissue so it settled into Jacobs heart and took up residence.

On August 28 Jacob had an open-heart surgery where the aortic valve was replaced. During the surgery, they discovered damage to his mitral valve as well. At the time, his team of doctors believed the mitral valve would repair itself. About three weeks later, Jacob developed an infection in both valves. After many attempts to salvage both his new valve and the other, they decided they would both need to be replaced. His heart surgeons were transparent with us, mentioning this surgery is rare, dangerous and only seen by their highest, most qualified doctors once a year. His heart failure team called this procedure his “Hail Mary attempt at life”. They could not guarantee that his heart would withstand the invasive surgery but had no other choice. They preformed this procedure on Monday, September 25th.

The Hail Mary surgery was performed successfully but, he had to have an ECMO heart pump installed directly into his heart to help it regain strength. This prevented his surgeons from being able to close his chest. He has been in a medically induced coma ever since.

Now that I’ve given you all the doom and gloom, my son is a tough guy with a will to live stronger than anything I’ve ever seen. Three weeks ago, his heart failure doctor told him, “You have been almost dead since the day I met you”. He also said, “Every day I’m surprised and shocked that you are still alive". So here's the good part of the story, Jacob told him that it was God keeping him alive. We totally believe that God has performed countless miracles for Jacob so far! We’re trusting Him for a complete and total healing.

We are not sure how long this journey will be. With God's help, if Jacob is lucky enough to make it out of the hospital, he will require much more medical care before he’s able to come home. Unfortunately, through this process, Jacob has not had the luxury of health insurance. This poses many obstacles ahead.

If you are able to donate financially to his cause, it would be greatly appreciated. Whether you’re able to financially contribute or not, we ask that you would include Jacob in your prayers!

We hope to give you all a great update soon, thanks for reading.