On December 28th Mike Harrison was admitted to Princess Anne Hospital in Virginia Beach after losing consciousness and being unable to breathe for a short time. He was admitted after arriving by ambulance and then waiting for several hours in the ER. We knew that something had not been right for quite some time, but both of us being self-employed, health insurance is simply not an option in our budget. Mike had been seeing a Pulmonologist and paying out of pocket, but that doctor was just prescribing medication to alleviate his symptoms and was not interested in finding the cause of his nearly 3 years-long cough and increasing shortness of breath.

It didn’t take long once he got in front of a doctor in the ER to determine that they would be admitting him, stating, “I don’t know if there is anything wrong with your lungs, but there is definitely something going on with your heart.”

By Thursday morning the cardiologist at Princess Anne Hospital had read his Echo Cardiogram, consulted with the doctors at Norfolk General Heart Hospital, and decided to have Mike transported to the heart hospital for catheter imaging of his heart and likely Mitral Valve repair or replacement. As scary as that was, Mike took it in stride, posting something to the effect of “gonna go get this little valve thing taken care of.”

Well, if he had been anywhere other than the heart hospital at 5:30 PM on Thursday, December 29th he would not be here right now. During the imaging, the valve in his heart “exploded.” His condition became critical within a matter of moments and he was placed in the Cardiac ICU on life support while awaiting an OR to become available. His condition was such that, although this is a relatively normal surgery, his odds of a life-threatening complication during, or in the days immediately following the surgery, went from less than 1% to 25%.

After 4 days in the Cardiac Surgery ICU, and several more days in the hospital Mike was released from the hospital to finish recovery at home. He is wearing a Zoll Life-vest (wearable defibrillator), taking things one day at a time, and adhering to ALL of the doctors’ orders. We are hopeful that he will make a full recovery, but his heart is still very weak and needs time to heal. This means time off from work, medical expenses that would give someone with a healthy heart palpitations, and at least 3 months of recovery time.

Mike and his wife Liz are forever grateful to all of their friends and family who have reached out, brought food, stopped in to cheer them up, helped with the dogs, and so much more! Mike still has a long road ahead of him and a lifetime of new medications so any help is appreciated! Sloppy Seconds has a goal of $15,000 to help with Mike's medical expenses.