Medical Fund for Pacemaker Costs
Donation protected
Hello, my name is Brandon Brizzi. I was born on January 1st, 1981 with a congenital heart defect known as Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return. TAPVR is when the veins that bring blood back from the lungs don't connect to the left atrium like usual but instead connect back to the heart abnormally which makes it so that the body is not getting the oxygenated blood it needs to survive. This is a life threatening condition. 36 years ago when I was diagnosed with this condition I was taken to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, UT where open heart surgury was performed, I was just 3 months old. I was given a very small chance to survive, and not without multiple complications including needing to be resusitated, I made it through and here I am today, thank goodness!
My childhood went pretty normally. I was very rambunctious and active, giving no signs of a near fatal heart condition, until I was 11 years old. I began to have chest pains periodically. Some were minor and I just ignored them and some were very painful that would debilitate me for up to 30 minutes. I tried to hide them because I was scared but one day I had a really bad one right as I came in the house from playing outside. My mother was in the kitchen and she took notice right away. She helped me get through it and then made a call to set up an appointment to get me checked out.
An extensive series of tests were performed over the course of several months. One of the first was a stress test, they put me on a treadmill hooked up to a bunch of wires reading my vitals and had me walk/run for 3 minutes at varying speeds and inclines up to 10 degrees. When I was finished my heart was only beating 42 times per minute. The doctor was in disbelief. I remember him looking at me and then to my mother and saying that he has no idea how I'm still alive.
After wearing a heart monitor for 3 months and going through a series of other tests, I was given a pacemaker shortly after turning 12 years old. During these tests they discovered that my heart not only beat much slower than it should have been beating, it also beat sporadically out of rythm to life threatening extremes. They also found that my heart was not the size of an 11/12 year old, but the size of a 7 year old. They suspected that possibly some nerves were damaged during my open heart surgery as an infant causing the abnormal heart growth but there was no way to know for sure. What they did know for sure was that if I didn't get a pacemaker, I would not live to see puberty and I would need a pacemaker throughout the rest of my life. They soon figured out the type of pacemaker I needed and in it went with no complications.
Over the course of the next 24 years things went mostly as well as they could be expected. I had regular monthly phone and biannual doctors office checkups to make sure all was well, for the most part everything went without incodent. My second pacemaker when I was 18 had to be put in prematurely because my Atrial lead had gotten wedged underneath my collar bone and severed. My pacemaker still had 3/4 of it's battery expectancy but because the technology had improved so drastically over the course of the previous 6 years, they decided to give me a new pacemaker as well as a new Atrial lead.
My third pacemaker came when I was 25. Now here I am at 36 and in need of a new one, but with one major difference, no health insurance. I've been self employed most of my adult life and been lucky to have insurance through parents or my spouse, that is no longer the case. "Obamacare" is way out of my reach financially and my spouse is also self employed, neither of us can afford insurance. I've been looking for work with a company that provides insurance but have not yet been hired or offered any positions.
It's getting down to the wire. My doctor said that I should not go past March to get a new pacemaker but wants to do it ASAP. The only other option I have is to have the surgery done as self pay and then file bankruptcy afterward. I just can't bring myself to doing that unless it is an absolute last resort.
100% of the money donated will go to cover the costs of my medical bills associated with getting the new pacemaker and if more is donated than needed or I obtain employment that provides health insurance, I will refund every penny or divide what's left over equally between every person that donated and give it back.
My life is literally on the line. I must have this surgery ASAP. I have a 3 year old daughter that means more to me than anything and I want to see her grow, learn, experience life and be able to walk her down the isle someday. We share an amazing bond and I would never forgive myself if I left her so early in her lifetime.
I have debated for several months whether or not to set up this gofundme account, hoping that I would obtain employment with insurance so that I wouldn't have to ask for help. This was a very difficult decision for me to make but I feel that I have no other choice. I want to sincerely thank each and every one of you that donates and if you aren't in a position financially to donate, then please just share this with your family and friends. I will forever hold a special place for you in my heart. Thank you in advance!
My childhood went pretty normally. I was very rambunctious and active, giving no signs of a near fatal heart condition, until I was 11 years old. I began to have chest pains periodically. Some were minor and I just ignored them and some were very painful that would debilitate me for up to 30 minutes. I tried to hide them because I was scared but one day I had a really bad one right as I came in the house from playing outside. My mother was in the kitchen and she took notice right away. She helped me get through it and then made a call to set up an appointment to get me checked out.
An extensive series of tests were performed over the course of several months. One of the first was a stress test, they put me on a treadmill hooked up to a bunch of wires reading my vitals and had me walk/run for 3 minutes at varying speeds and inclines up to 10 degrees. When I was finished my heart was only beating 42 times per minute. The doctor was in disbelief. I remember him looking at me and then to my mother and saying that he has no idea how I'm still alive.
After wearing a heart monitor for 3 months and going through a series of other tests, I was given a pacemaker shortly after turning 12 years old. During these tests they discovered that my heart not only beat much slower than it should have been beating, it also beat sporadically out of rythm to life threatening extremes. They also found that my heart was not the size of an 11/12 year old, but the size of a 7 year old. They suspected that possibly some nerves were damaged during my open heart surgery as an infant causing the abnormal heart growth but there was no way to know for sure. What they did know for sure was that if I didn't get a pacemaker, I would not live to see puberty and I would need a pacemaker throughout the rest of my life. They soon figured out the type of pacemaker I needed and in it went with no complications.
Over the course of the next 24 years things went mostly as well as they could be expected. I had regular monthly phone and biannual doctors office checkups to make sure all was well, for the most part everything went without incodent. My second pacemaker when I was 18 had to be put in prematurely because my Atrial lead had gotten wedged underneath my collar bone and severed. My pacemaker still had 3/4 of it's battery expectancy but because the technology had improved so drastically over the course of the previous 6 years, they decided to give me a new pacemaker as well as a new Atrial lead.
My third pacemaker came when I was 25. Now here I am at 36 and in need of a new one, but with one major difference, no health insurance. I've been self employed most of my adult life and been lucky to have insurance through parents or my spouse, that is no longer the case. "Obamacare" is way out of my reach financially and my spouse is also self employed, neither of us can afford insurance. I've been looking for work with a company that provides insurance but have not yet been hired or offered any positions.
It's getting down to the wire. My doctor said that I should not go past March to get a new pacemaker but wants to do it ASAP. The only other option I have is to have the surgery done as self pay and then file bankruptcy afterward. I just can't bring myself to doing that unless it is an absolute last resort.
100% of the money donated will go to cover the costs of my medical bills associated with getting the new pacemaker and if more is donated than needed or I obtain employment that provides health insurance, I will refund every penny or divide what's left over equally between every person that donated and give it back.
My life is literally on the line. I must have this surgery ASAP. I have a 3 year old daughter that means more to me than anything and I want to see her grow, learn, experience life and be able to walk her down the isle someday. We share an amazing bond and I would never forgive myself if I left her so early in her lifetime.
I have debated for several months whether or not to set up this gofundme account, hoping that I would obtain employment with insurance so that I wouldn't have to ask for help. This was a very difficult decision for me to make but I feel that I have no other choice. I want to sincerely thank each and every one of you that donates and if you aren't in a position financially to donate, then please just share this with your family and friends. I will forever hold a special place for you in my heart. Thank you in advance!
Organizer
Brandon Talan Brizzi
Organizer
Clearfield, UT