Hello everyone, we want to introduce you to Aaron Skinner (29yrs). A loving husband, father, son, and brother from Montpelier, Idaho. Aaron is married to Kylee Lyn Skinner (29yrs) and has two beautiful little girls, Payton (10yrs) and Burkley (8yrs).

Starting in November of 2024, Aaron started having general health issues which he sought diagnostics and treatment for at Bear Lake Memorial Hospital. After countless months of hospital visits, blood draws, CT scans, MRIs, blood transfusions, etc., his symptoms only progressed with no real answers as to what was going on.

On Wednesday, February 19th, 2025, Aaron had a few final tests at BLMH, which resulted in him being ambulanced out to McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden, Utah. Upon arrival at McKay Dee Hospital, Aaron had many more tests run. These tests were able to tell us that Aaron was in acute heart failure and his lungs were sweating and holding fluid, which was also causing damage to his liver, spleen, and kidneys. Aaron's kidneys being damaged also presented a problem because he has struggled with Nephrogenic Diabetes Insipidus (NDI) since birth. In addition to the heart failure, it was found that there was vegetation growing in his heart and infection was being pushed through his bloodstream.

The following day, February 20th, the doctors presented that his best option for survival was to undergo open-heart surgery to repair his aortic valve and scrape out all of the vegetation. The surgeons said that his aortic valve was so damaged that it was causing blood to backflow and the surgery needed to be done as soon as possible. He spent the rest of that night pondering his valve options and loving his family as much as possible.

At 4:00 a.m. on February 21st, he was being prepped and rushed into surgery. The surgeons ended up replacing his valve with a mechanical valve, which means he will be on lifelong medications to help manage his blood flow. During surgery, they found that his aortic valve was bicuspid (which is abnormal) and can be passed down genetically. This means that Aaron's children will now have to be tested to catch it early if possible. At the moment, Aaron is in no block, which means his heart is not beating on its own, and it is relying solely on a temporary pacemaker. He is currently in the ICU being monitored closely, and if his heart does not start beating on its own, they will take him back to surgery to place a permanent pacemaker.

Right now, the plan is to keep him in the ICU for a few days and then he will be transferred to the cardiac unit where he will stay for a couple of weeks. At that point, the doctors will determine if he is healthy enough to go home, or if he will need to be transferred to a rehabilitation center for further care. He will have a PICC line for approximately 6 weeks and will have to travel to and from Idaho and Utah until his care team deems otherwise.

Aaron has a long road ahead of him and other medical issues that need to be solved until he is in the clear, but at least we have a start. Aaron is the primary source of income for the family and due to the distance, Kylee will also be out of work. Because of this, we are asking for prayers and any help that we can get to cover medical bills, travel costs, and childcare. Thank you all so much.