Steve Olson - Open Heart Surgery

Surprise of a Lifetime, Again...!

Steve in recovery after open heart surgery 2-13-17.

As many of you reading this may know, and for those that do not, my brother - Steve Olson has had a tough go of things medically speaking.

In 2005, Steve was diagnosed with a brain tumor requiring very invasive brain surgery, separating the halves of his brain to remove the tumor.  Steve spent several months recuperating to the point of being able to take care of himself - and get back to 90% of his old self. He still struggles with equilibrium issues and has had many other struggles associated with this recovery. This was a very rare event, one that changed his life forever.

Then, on February 3rd of this year, Steve started experiencing chest pain and was taken to the hospital - here is his wife Holly's facebook post letting us know what had happened:

"Hey everyone.. "This is Holly" Steves cell phone has been off the hook with messages so I want to take a minute and talk about what is happening right now.
Steve had heart flutters last night. I brought him to the ER this morning and the cardiologist said he was in A-Fib. They tried medication and it did not work so the shocked / paddled him. That took care of the A-fib, but come to find out, he was born without one of his heart valves, so his Aortic valve was compensating for the missing one. His aortic valve gave out and caused his heart to flutter putting him into A-Fib. They did an echo cardio gram and saw that his heart was a mess. They were going to do open heart surgery today but they need him to rest for a while and let his valves rest and his clotting factors to be adequate for surgery."

On 2/13/17, Steve had his major open heart surgery, the second major life saving surgery just 11 years after his brain surgery. The surgery was a success, Steve is home recuperating with a recovery expectancy of 18 months. Though the family is insured, they are experiencing many out of pocket financial obligations that are outside of what any person or family would have expected or planned for.

Though we are overjoyed and blessed that he is recovering as well as he is, the burden of unforeseen medical bills, co-payments, deductibles, and medications are racking up and taking thier toll on his ability to relax and recuperate. As someone that has had my own medical trials in the past, I know how hard it is to focus on getting better when you have the burden of extra bills coming in regularly.

We are asking for your thoughts and prayers for Steve's full recovery, and if you would like to contribute to the fund that we are establishing, you are more than welcome to do just that. Please understand that there is no pressure to do so, our family will make sure that we do whatever is necessary to take care of one another, as we always have - but any blessing that you'd like to contribute would be greatly appreciated.

I'm attaching some addition picture that we've taken over the past 10 days...

Pre-op photo - Nervous family

Here we are right before surgery. We are grateful the expressions of love we've received!

In ICU recovery following surgery

Holly caring for Steve following surgery

Jake and Megan visiting Dad after surgery - look at that smile!!!  

Getting better and stronger each day

Time to get up and walk

For those of you that don't know Steve personally, he is an amazing Dad to 4 beautiful children (Jake, Megan, Jenna, and Wyatt). He has been married to Holly for 17 years and currently resides in Layton. Holly works very hard supporting the family, while Steve is currently a stay home Dad caring for thier 4 kids and ensuring that they have an amazing family life. Much of this is due to his previous medical condition (brain tumor) that has compromised his abilities to go back to his previous career.

If you have any questions, or are interested in helping out and would like to contact the family, please feel free to email me at [email redacted].

Thank you for reading and your thoughts and prayers.

Kat (Olson) Crews