Luke’s Heart Transplant Journey

My son-in-law was diagnosed with a heart condition 3 years ago. A year ago he was told he was going to be listed for a heart transplant and has been active on the list since March 2022. Since then he has deteriorated hugely, breathlessness and fatigue has taken over his life. He was admitted into local hospitals multiple times for fluid retention, a pulmonary embolism, to have an ICD and pacemaker fitted along with a few other things.

Fast forward to November 2022 and Luke attended a regular check up at Royal Papworth hospital to be told his kidney function was deteriorating due to the reduced function of his heart. This meant he was not safe to continue waiting for his donor heart from home and was brought into Papworth on the 22nd November 2022 to be placed on IV drugs and monitored closely where he would wait on the urgent list. Over the past few weeks his condition has slowly worsened until Thursday where Luke was taken for emergency surgery to fit a BiVAD which is a mechanical pump for your heart. He suffered a cardiac arrest on the operating table that night and was so lucky to be where he was as there were able to get him onto bypass super quickly and take over keeping him alive. Each day since his open heart surgery, he has gone from strength to strength with the support of my daughter, his wife. She hasn’t left his side but this obviously comes at a huge cost of travel, fuel, transport, hotels. I wanted to set this page up to help them both out with the cost of these awful and unfortunate circumstances. For obvious reasons Luke isn’t working at present and Belle has taken a step back to support and be by Luke’s side in hospital which is over 2 hours away from where they live. She is making frequent trips back home and making sure she gets to still see and love on Luke’s 3 year old little boy, Kobe.

Luke will have to regain most of his strength now he is on his pump, before the re-list him to wait for his heart transplant. Then they will have to go through the surgery and recovery again, physio, diet changes, trips to and from Papworth. Taking each day by day but they show such strength, such resilience, such grace, such love. You leave me speechless. I love you both so incredibly much. You are, individually and as a couple, such an inspiration. I am so proud to be you momma and momma-in-law ❤️❤️

 Please follow Luke and Isobel’s heart transplant journey on Instagram ❤️ @hearttransplantjourney_