Stand with Marvin's Family in Tough Times

UPDATES ADDED

Raising money for Marvin Winks family. On Saturday 4/20 Marvin had emergency open heart surgery for aortic dissection ( ascending and descending)the surgeons had to basically rebuild his aorta using grafts and stents. It is truly a miracle that he made it to surgery and then survived the surgery to do the repair and the surgery to close the chest up 36 hours later. Marvin had NO health problems and was on no medications. Because he was on the heart/lung bypass machine for so long, 6 hours, we won’t know the full extent of major organ injuries for some time. He was started on dialysis yesterday for kidney failure. 

Marvin and Tammie have 2 girls, Kennedy is 21 and Kila is 16. 

The medical costs now and in the future alone will devastate his family financially. Not to mention the costs that go along with just “living”. Marvin is such a great person. Everyone that meets him loves him❤️. We are heartbroken for all they are going through. Please pray

UPDATE:

Marvin is out of 13+ hour long surgery and is going to Cardiac ICU. It really is a miracle. He is in critical condition and the next 48 hours are very critical. At that time he will go back to surgery to close his chest. His Aorta was completely destroyed and had to have multiple grafts to repair it. Time will tell if any of his major organs were affected. Please keep him in your prayers

UPDATE SUNDAY

Marvin’s condition has not changed in the last few hours, he is hanging on for dear life. If he stays on this course he may go back to surgery tomorrow afternoon to close his chest. Leaving his chest open has not been done here before. Thanks to the new cardio-thoracic surgeons here Dr.Fratello and Dr Kleisli, Dr Abdulla(vascular)and Dr Sirafi (anesthesia), they gave Marvin a second chance at life❤️. By no means out of the woods but he is alive……..

Thank you for all of the prayers and support. Have not had time to return texts and messages so far but we have read them all and appreciate you all so much

UPDATE Sunday pm

Marvin is a fighter! His condition is basically the same, he has more edema (40+pounds), labs look worse BUT his body is basically in shock so that is expected. On the positive he has some oozing but no significant bleeding. The chest tubes have had minimal output. His neuro exam is intact, pulses to extremities are there. He is making urine. Plan is to close the chest tomorrow pm. He is on many drips, that are adjusted per his labs and vital signs. He has a 1:1 RN who monitors everything. We have had so many prayers and support, without that I don’t think he would be alive. Everything aligned for Marv to make it this far. The right Doctors, anesthesia, just everything!!! So thankful❤️❤️❤️

UPDATE

Monday AM

Marvin had an uneventful night. The only change is that he will need to start dialysis soon. Surgery to close his chest is on for this afternoon. No set time yet. They will remove the packing from the chest, do an antibiotic wash out, control any bleeding and close the incision with either cables or a plate? So keep the prayers coming for Marv❤️.

UPDATE: Monday 1030

Marvin is having a dialysis cather put in now in the ICU. Surgery is at 1 pm today.

People wanting to help can help financially by Tammie’s Venmo.

Her and Marvin will not be working for God knows how long. They have a long journey ahead no matter what happens

@Tamara-wink-1

❤️

POST SURGERY UPDATE

Marvin’s surgery to close his chest incision went as planned. No surprises. He is back in the ICU. The surgeons are so amazing !!! A SWAN line was put in to measure the pressures in his heart. They will start to wean him from all of sedation so they can check on his neurological function. All that has happened has been a true miracle, GOD is good, THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR EVERY SINGLE PRAYER FOR MARVIN!!

FYI Marvin can not have visitors. Immediate family only.

UPDATE TUESDAY am

Marvin had a good night❤️. He is being weaned off of the sedation. He is turning his head to voices and tries to open his eyes. Doesn’t like the ventilator so they may consult pulmonary today. Liver enzymes look a little better. Dialysis is going well and swelling is going down. Neurologist will be consulted when Marv wakes up a little more. No news is good news.

We want to thank all of you for the prayers! We know GOD has a plan for Marvin. I hope this is also a wake up call for everyone to not ignore any chest pain (think it is just heartburn) or unexplained fatigue/feeling tired all the time ( this is the only symptom Marvin had-Dr Google said it was “long term COVID”) and uncontrolled high blood pressure. See your Dr!

GOOD NEWS

Marvin is actually responding to questions by nodding. Moving arms and legs too

3pm UPDATE

Marvin had ultrasounds of his extremities to check for blood clots and started on heparin. They are doing blood, urine and sputum cultures, checking for bacteria. Blood pressure has been bouncing around. His gut is starting to wake up. He is looking around and responding but I can tell that he really isn’t comprehending anything yet. Things are moving in the right direction but there are so many moving parts involved. I don’t know how the nurses manage the 10 different medications on 10 different IV pumps and all of the dialysis settings. GOD bless them✝️

UPDATE DAY 5

Marvin is about the same this morning. They did all of the cultures yesterday because of an elevated white blood cell count. Also a fever, they say this is to be expected ‍♀️. But that is what they have been saying about most everything. His hemoglobin is low 6.9 so he will be getting some more blood today, that say it is because of the dialysis. So no news is good news.

UPDATE DAY 5 afternoon

Great afternoon for Marv’s girls!

Took him off of sedation to try to get him off of the vent. He was interacting with them. He was winking and trying to give smooches . They had to keep him from falling asleep for 3 hours before they would take the tube out. And clearly he was annoyed . Tammie asked “am I annoying you?”and he was shaking his head yes! Also he clearly wanted that tube out. So they went to the waiting “hallway”. When they did that. He was not able to tolerate breathing on his own so they put the tube back in and decided to give him a few more days to rest. So he is sedated again. Just imaging having you chest cavity held open for 14 hours and the pain. He just wasn’t ready for that. He looks comfortable now and hopefully will gain more strength. But for the girls they got to see that it is still Marvin/ Dad !!. His facial expressions and eye rolling etc! Thank GOD for all of this!

UPDATE DAY 6 AM

Marv had a pretty much uneventful night. Had some tachycardia episodes that were taken care of with medication adjustments. They are also working on the dialysis to get more fluids off and out of his system. Pray for a positive day

4/25/24 PM

Marvin had a good day. He was kept sedated to rest. But he still opens his eyes when he hears people talking. He was started on nutrition through the nasal/gastric feeding tube and that is a great sign that his gut is waking up. His liver and kidney labs are improving. When talking with the nurses it is a MIRACLE to everyone that he is alive and defying all odds. Truly Gods work❤️ She also said during surgery they repaired the abdominal aorta, iliac arteries and the left renal artery, simply amazing.

I am back to work now and will be going to the hospital at 4pm to see Marv, so my daily updates will be about it this time daily UNLESS there is a turn of events, and I will update asap. I actually think Marv must be superhuman

Update 4/26 am from Mike Wink

Marvs lost weight overnight meaning they got more fluid out.

They changed his blood pressure medicine because they thought that may have been the problem when they took him off the vent yesterday.

Last night they had to turn the vent up, they morning they were able to turn it back down. Otherwise he is holding his own. ❤️

UPDATE 4/26 PM

Not much change today. Trying to keep Marv calm till he gets rid of another 20 pounds of extra fluids. He is down 6 pounds from yesterday. They are also having issues controlling his blood pressures. He looks calm but sad at the same time. Hard to put into words. I think the plan for tomorrow is a rest day and try to wean off the vent on Sunday. There are so many moving parts, hard to even wrap my head around it all. Keep praying for him✝️❤️

UPDATE 4/27 AM

This morning they are lowering the ventilator settings slowly to take him off tomorrow. Still working to keep his blood pressure down, it was as high as 160/80 after his lungs were suctioned. It came down with medication adjustment. He is responding to us, blinking and raising eyebrows appropriately. He lost 12 pounds of fluid weight in the last 24 hours. Hoping for an uneventful day❤️

UPDATE FOR 4/27 PM

Marvin was more alert today. He has a way of communicating with his eyes, eyebrows and facial expressions even with the ET tube and feeding tube. Doing good with the lower vent settings. Tolerating the tube feedings and belly is rumbling. He is not in pain and indicates that he is comfortable. Seems to understand why he has the breathing tube for now. Plan to try and take it out tomorrow as long as he passes their tests . Pray for a good night and I will update tomorrow . Thank you all again for all of the love and support ❤️