Herman's Heart Battle

On Monday 5/19 Herman woke up in the middle of the night with extreme shortness of breath. He made the decision to call 911 and was taken by ambulance the the hospital in Grants, NM. Fairly quickly after admission it was discovered that he had a massive blood clot in his lung and would need immediate intervention. He was life flighted to UNM Hospital in Albuquerque, NM in the early morning on Tuesday 5/20. His wonderful fiancé Tanya flew from Phoenix to be by his side. The amazing team here was able to perform surgery to remove the clot and the blockage in his arteries coming from heart.

After this initial surgery we were still left with a lot of unanswered questions and were hopeful that his organs and especially his heart would start to recover. He was placed on ECMO to assist with his right chamber of his heart and an Impella vent to help pump the left chamber. Unfortunately his heart was not healing.

They expect that he had been in left sided heart failure for quite some time. Blood was most likely not pumping out correctly and started to organize/clot in his left chamber causing blockages on those arteries. Herman had a bad cough for a few weeks and we think that finally dislodged those clots into his lungs which set everything in motion.

Herman’s heart is only operating at around 5% and it has been declared that he is officially in heart failure. Thursday 5/22, we are trying to find a transplant center in Arizona that will take him so we can start the necessary steps to get Herman a new heart.

Herman was all set to move to Arizona in a few weeks to finally live with Tanya and start their life together. They have their wedding date set in January 2026 and we are so hopeful that we will have so much to celebrate. The reality is that there is so much unknown moving forward and we don’t have all the answers yet. He has a great team around him , a strong partner by his side, and the faith in god needed to get through this.

We appreciate all the well-wishes and prayers from everyone during this time. We have a long road ahead of us and are so blessed to have your support.

5/23- Herman officially got a bed at Mayo Clinic- Scottsdale! He was life-flighted from Albuquerque Friday morning and is now settled in. Lots of ups and downs on the journey but we are feeling positive that he is getting the best care necessary! No real update. Next few days will be monitoring and lots of tests to make a plan.

6/28 update-

Herman has remained in the Mayo ICU for over a month now.

On Monday 5/23 Herman underwent open heart surgery and received an LVAD device to support his stage 4 heart failure. Unfortunately since the surgery we have had a few set backs. His right side of the heart hasn’t been strong enough to work with the LVAD and is causing a lot of fluid build up. He has 4 chest tubes in to help drain but unfortunately it has led to a collapsed lung. Today they decided it would be best to get Herman back under intubation and sedation to give him some time to bounce back. The surgery on Monday also caused an injury to his kidneys. Today the doctors also decided to put him on continuous dialysis to help his kidneys. They are hopeful this will not be a permanent need. Tanya has remained by his side daily, sending updates to family and being such a support for Herman. There is still a long road ahead for them. Please continue to share and help support in anyway you can! Thank you!