Help Support Paul & Tracey Silvestri

Hi! My name is Nicole Holly, Paul Silvestri’s daughter.

My whole life, my dad has been extremely hard working. He has busted his butt for his family. He was a stone mason for most of me and my brothers childhoods.

17 years ago, 3rd grade picture day, my dad went for a stress test. I remember the day very well. My mommom came to help get all of us ready for school since my parents had to go to the hospital early for the test. When we arrived home from school. My Aunt Michele was there to pick us up and take us to see our dad. He was admitted to the hospital and was in need of surgery (this was a Friday and surgery was scheduled for Monday). Surgeons told my mom it would take 8 hours max. This man took almost double the amount of time…. 13 hours. I remember my brothers and me standing in the hallway as we saw his hospital bed rounding the corner to come back to his ICU room as they manually squeezed air into his lungs. Recovery for that surgery was nothing short of hard on my dad AND MY MOM. He required around the clock care. I remember him needing to hug a pillow to cough because of his chest cavity being wired shut. My mom had to get the proper things put into place in the house to make his recovery as easy as possible. (New bed. Due to him not being able to get out of a water bed)

A few years later, My dad realized being a stone mason wasn’t something he could do for the rest of his life. So he started as a janitor part time at Pennridge High School. He would sub in here and there.

Finally he got a 2nd shift full time position. Where he would do mason work during the day. Sleep a few hours. Then go back to work. (I would know cause sometimes I’d have to pick him up from work at 11pm as I yelled out my window at him).

He finally got a maintenance position at Pennridge and it may of been the best thing that happened to him! He LOVES his job! He speaks soooooo unbelievably highly of everyone he works with.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve. 12-24-2023

The early morning of Christmas Eve my brothers and I received a phone call from my mom at 12am (Christmas Eve morning) saying my dad was having a heart attack. My brothers and myself flew out of our houses and made it to Doylestown (all of us basically in pajamas). He went on the EKG machine. And it was determined it was NOT a heart attack; we had relief for a split second. But the news that came after was worse.

He was having an aortic dissection…. And Doylestown hospital, who did his previous open heart surgery, did not want to touch him due to blood thinners and scar tissue and felt the best option was to fly him to University of Penn. We all left Doylestown ran home to get a few things and speed on over at 3am. He was quickly scheduled for surgery at 7am.

We all spoke to him, we all cried. We prayed; we held hands. My dad got wheeled away for surgery at 7:30am. He was not back into his room until 8pm that night.

The doctor came to talk to us to let us know what the results of the surgery were.

(and I hope I still remember this correctly!)

Your aorta goes around the heart and to the back near your spine. My dad’s dissection was interesting since it basically traveled the length of his aorta. And with the dissection it was cutting off the bypass he had done 17 years ago, along with that, it was causing one of his valves to pull away from the heart. The surgeon needed to go in, fix 3 sections of his aorta (typically it’s only one at a time), fix the grafts he had done 17 years ago and replace his valve. Like I said this surgery took a total of 13 hours from when he got wheeled away. Everyone; doctors, nurses and everyone who had any medical education told us that he should NOT be alive.

We asked the doctor, ‘how is he alive right now and didn’t die when this happened?? why was he able to walk?!’

His previous open heart surgery saved my dads life!!! His scar tissue basically acted like duct tape…. And held it all together the best it could!

The surgeon has told us that this road to recovery is going to be LONG and the severity of this surgery is nothing compared to the previous one.

We all got to see him around 9pm once he was situated. He was still sedated and on a ventilator.

He was doing well! Christmas his numbers were good. Day after Christmas. Everything was great. His neuro checks all great! Opening his eyes when sedation was lessened. But they wanted to make sure his heart got rest so he has stayed sedated. They were pumping him full of lasix, cause one thing my dad REALLY well is retains water . Like it’s his job. So with all the blood and fluids he got: he was swollen like a balloon. And in order to get him off the ventilator he needed to get rid of some of it. (We had never been more excited to see urine ).

They lowered his ventilator to trigger his brain to start breathing on his own. And he started too! He was breathing on his own for about 13 hours before they felt like he was ready to be taken off the ventilator.

It was about 5:30am, December 27th, my mom was in the waiting room, and the alarms started to go off and all the nurses sprinted to his room: yelling my dad’s name. He went into Afib. And needed to be stocked 5-6 times to get his heart back into rhythm. He had been getting x-rays every morning of his chest and his lungs. The night before everything was fine. After this event they decided to put a camera down to check on his left lung. They noticed that he had a lot of mucus and diagnosed him with pneumonia in his left lung. They were able to suck out a lot of the mucus, and they took a culture to try to narrow down what type of pneumonia it was. He was put on a broad spectrum of an antibiotic until they got the results back, which will take a few days.

This was just a set back. But it sure has hit us like a ton of bricks. The upside of this, if you consider it an upside, is that the pneumonia is only in one lung.

As of this morning(12/28/23), his body is responding to the broad spectrum antibiotic , but hopefully tomorrow we will really be able to narrow down what antibiotic will work best when the culture is complete. He has been battling a fever of 101 to 102. The hospital has been amazing with information and keeping everyone informed and staying on top of my dad‘s care.

Many people have reached out to my mom, my brother, our spouses, aunts, uncles, grandparents, asking how they are able to help. Some want to send meals, which is greatly appreciated and would be extremely helpful. I am creating this go fund me to assist my mom and dad, as his recovery will be approximately three months. He will need full-time care, and they will have some medical expenses.

The outpouring of love and support that we have received these past few days has been truly amazing. It’s amazing to know how many people my dad has truly touched. He is truly a special breed, and he will let you know that as well ha ha. We asked that you continue to pray for my dad and a speedy recovery. Also, please say an extra prayer for my mom to give her the strength to get through these next few months.