Hi. My name is Mindy West-Loch. This handsome lil guy’s name is River. River is 10 yrs old and fighting for his life.

River was diagnosed with a heart condition that ultimately placed him on the heart transplant list. If you personally know River, he is a spunky, outgoing, full of energy little boy! Always keeping his mother Maelyn going. River loves to fish, loves frogs. He loves to be outdoors and go camping. He loves wrestling and gaming with his friends. Rivers best friend is his mom (Maelyn Loch). Maelyn is a single mom on one income. She is a devoted Christian. She loves her two kids more than life itself. You nor I can even begin to imagine what she is experiencing right now. Not able to work, stressing about the bills that will pile up when all she should have to worry about is being by River’s side and praying everyday that god has him in his arms.

Last Sunday, September 7th 2025 he underwent a heart transplant at the Colorado Children’s hospital.

The surgery was a success come to find out early Monday morning. Mae said that they didn’t even have to shock the new heart for it to start beating. River did great through the surgery and we all were so happy and blessed.

Day 2 (Tuesday) This morning was pretty rough for him. He’s on a massive dose of steroids which can cause the irritable and on edge feeling and he’s on epinephrine so he’s getting straight adrenaline through his veins then they had his heart paced at a higher rate than what is normal in order to keep his blood pressure up where they need it to be so he was feeling like his heart was racing/pounding, so between the three it’s just one big anxiety cocktail for him. It just breaks my heart seeing him like this

On a positive note though, they are working on weaning down his oxygenation pressures within his oxygen system to where he won’t need to be on as much oxygen (he’s on 26 liters) right now. Once they get those pressures completely weaned down and his lungs are still functioning good without and he’s still breathing okay on his own then they can take out the IV line in his neck. It’s the line that leads from his jugular vein straight into his heart. So they’ve been monitoring that pressure number very closely CVP (central venous pressure) number is what is pretty much running the show and determines each next step for them.

Day 3 (Wednesday) Rivers little body was getting tired. - It has been a rough morning. They all said day 3 is typically the worst because ICU delirium starts to set in at that point. He's a little confused and agitated. He's struggling with taking the medications. There are so so many medications. They started him on a new immunosuppressant (anti-rejection) medication this morning. It's the one he will be on for the rest of his life. It's really hard on the stomach and should be given with food but it's very time sensitive and had to be in by 8:00am and he was struggling to take it so they had to just give it to him without food. Which then made his stomach upset and he's now only on the Oxy for pain, they took away all the IV pain meds. So he has to eat before he can take that also, but with his stomach already upset from the other it took awhile to get him to want to eat to take the Oxy. Finally got the Oxy in and he's resting now.

Day 4 (Thursday) Update: Just finished rounds with his team of doctors this morning. Please have everyone pray specifically for the pleural effusion (fluid) in his right lung. X-ray showed it has worsened today. The cardiologist is concerned this could be a sign of rejection. They are hoping it’s just from all of the extra fluid from surgery and his IV drips so they are going to aggressively treat with more diuretics today in hopes that will take care of it. They are also getting an Echo today to see the status of the new heart since this could be a sign of rejection if the diuretics don’t take care of it. Ultrasound of his throat showed his left vocal cord is not functioning, so that explains his voice and his difficulty swallowing. The ultrasound of his arm showed a blood clot in one of the veins but the cardiologist said he does not need to be treated with an anti-thrombolytic drug because it's not in one of the deep veins so there is no concern of it going to his heart.

Day 5 (Friday) - They are going to have an ear, nose, and throat doctor come see him and do an x-ray swallow study and figure out if they need to do injections or what treatment to help get his vocal cord functioning again. Cardiologist said his liver is enlarged because Echo showed the right side of his new heart is not pumping as well as the left side so there’s increased pressure which is causing his liver to be enlarged. This is what is causing his abdominal pain. The x-ray showed fluid in his right lung has increased in size. So they feel that with the decreased function of the right side of his heart that is contributing to the fluid build up in his right lung. His heart is just not pumping at a strong enough rate on its own right now. So they are going to hook him up to the pacer machine and make his heart beat at a specific increased rate and give it some help until it adjusts and gets stronger function on that right side. This should hopefully help get rid of the fluid in his lung. River was up throwing up, so they had to tube him late last night. River is shutting down mentally, his body is tired.

UPDATE today - No changes this morning. Fluid in his lungs is a little increased today. So they’re continuing the diuretics. His liver is still significantly enlarged. His BP is still higher than they’d like so they increased his dose on BP med. His main doctor Dr. Everett the director of the transplant team who he’s seen with all of our previous visits before surgery. She is on for the next week and was in to see him a little bit ago. She said his different treatments (like the pacer machine that he’s back on now) got pulled too early thinking that he was doing so well the first few days after surgery. The right side of the heart is still decreased function. She said he needs to be back on everything that was pulled and this is just going to take time.

UPDATE Sunday, September 14th- Last night was another rough night with meds. He threw up all of his important ones even through the NG tube. They had to end up giving him Valium to get them down. So they are making that a standard order for now. He will get Valium before getting all of his meds morning and night to help him. On a positive note though, chest x-ray this morning showed the fluid looked improved and his lungs look better. They just took him off of the pacer machine a little bit ago so his heart is beating on its own now.

We just have to pray that his Echo tomorrow shows improvement in the function of the right side of his heart

UPDATE Monday Sept 15th -Mae is now getting sick. Which it’s crucial for her not too, so she doesn’t have to leave Rivers side. River can’t be around any sickness since he has no immune system.

The nights are just rough. He doesn’t get much sleep. Maybe couple hours at a time. We got to bed at midnight then he was up pretty much hourly throughout the night. We are 1 hour behind on his meds with his nurse this morning. His time-sensitive one was due at 09:00 and he couldn’t get it down and then the capsule was wet and the medication powder just spilled out everywhere all over him. Then the nurse got called to do rounds on his patient next door. So his most important time-sensitive med is now 1 hour late and he hasn’t gotten the other important med or any of his other meds yet. They did an echo yesterday to check the function of the right side of the heart, NOT the news we wanted to hear. The right side is decreased function. Hopefully he’s Dr’s will get a game plan together and update Mae tomorrow. Continued prayers needed PLEASE.

UPDATE. - Thursday, September 18. I apologize that it has taken me this long to post an update. Our family has been through so much this past week and continued PRAYERS are more important to us at this post.

River had some complications with his heart staying in the correct Rhythm. Mae caught it (thank the good lord) and grabbed help. He was shocked back into the correct Rhythm. The right lung at the bottom has collapsed. River is on breathing treatments and oxygen. They moved him out of ICU and into a recovery room. River had a fever last night and they have been breaking it with Tylenol. River has not urinated since yesterday afternoon, so a new complication has arose. River and Mae need all the prayers and support they can get. This little warrior is struggling. Please continue to pray and share.

UPDATE Saturday September 20th - GOD IS SO GOOD! We appreciate ALL the prayers these past two weeks. River is making a COMEBACK! His energy is starting to come back. He walked down to a different floor today, with his sister and cousin. That did take it out of him but he is moving about. They took his line out of his neck today. They will do another round of testing Monday. If he keeps improving. His lungs sound better. He will be released Monday or Tuesday from the hospital. Mae and River will have to stay in Colorado for 3-4 months so he can be close to the hospital. Please continue to pray for the family. Please pray that River continues to heal! Please pray for Mae and let’s share this so Mae can have help through this journey.

UPDATE- River ran into some complications with one of his baby teeth and started to experience severe pain. Dentist recommended extraction of some of his baby Teeth. He would not do it without a cardiologist present considering he just had a heart transplant. He ended up going under and having extensive dental work done. He is recovering from that and seems to be doing well.

UPDATE- Oct 13th 2025 - Rivers heart has been in rejection and has been being treated with meds. The rejection meds were helping. This morning Mae found out that his heart is still in rejection even after all the meds he has been on to help. Now they need to do a heart catheter tomorrow (hopefully) to take a biopsy of the tissue to see why he is in rejection. The right side of Rivers heart is being very stubborn. Please continue to pray for Rivers healing. Please find it in your hearts to help Mae financially through this time. Lets continue to support Mae and River on this long road of recovery.

To those of you who have continued to pray for our family and River. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. For those of you who have donated, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

I will continue to update everyone on a daily basis. BUT please donate if you can. ANYTHING helps. Mae does NOT need to worry about financial issues right now back at home when she needs to be 100% focused on River and his healing . Please PRAY for my nephew if you can’t donate. Prayer is very powerful and so is faith in Jesus Christ and this family needs the prayers.