Support Ross Cox’s Heart Surgery Recovery

Hey everyone, my name is Catelyn Greene. My dad, Ross, has had the roughest 6 months of his life. Back in December, he had an accident that left him unable to work. While being on leave, he became septic in April. It’s an absolute miracle that he is still here. He was in the hospital for over a week. This man has fought to stay with us. We thought after he was discharged, things would finally start looking up. The scary part was over. He had a PIC line for his antibiotics, and in 6 weeks, he would be back to normal. However, he started feeling like he couldn’t breathe again. He started throwing up clear fluid. Turns out his calf valve was going bad faster than anticipated. Him being septic put such a strain on his heart and body. He needed his heart surgery sooner than anticipated. We were told the day after Mother’s Day that his surgery would be June 5th. We still had time to prepare and save for our trip to support this man we care about so much. However, the day after learning when his surgery was supposed to be, God said he needed it sooner. Dad woke up the very next day shivering and throwing up that red fluid. Anyone who knows my dad knows he doesn’t get cold easily. (The absurd amount of air conditioning units we have had over the years weren't for nothing.) My mom put him in the shower and cranked it to a high temperature just to warm him up. But then his lips were blue. He couldn’t breathe. Mom rushed him to the emergency room to get transferred to Duke University Hospital, where he has had a left and right heart cath done. He will be getting another TEE and numerous echocardiograms. He got another PIC line because he’s been coughing so much and so hard that the PIC line moved out of place. He will be at the hospital for a week after his surgery and will be there for almost 2 weeks. His open heart surgery will be on Wednesday, May 21st. He is getting two mechanical valves.

If you know my family, we don’t ask for help for us. We were raised that if you want something, you better earn it. I decided to do this because so many people have asked what they can do to help. I just don’t want my parents stressing over paying his hospital bills while dad works on trying to recover. We don’t expect much because everyone is stretched thin right now, but anything helps. It helps us not have to worry about missing a week’s worth of work. It helps Dad pay for his hospital stays and his 3-hour ambulance ride. I appreciate everything everyone has done to support my family.

As most who have read our story know, the surgery didn’t go according to the doctor's plan but it did go God’s way. His heart was severely infected. He had two abscesses inside his heart. The surgeon said it was one of the most infected hearts he had ever seen. The original plan was to replace his mitral valve and his aortic valve with two mechanical valves. Well the tissue around his aortic valve was so weak that it wouldn’t be able to hold the mechanical valve. So instead he got a pig valve. While replacing the valve he started bleeding so much(he also coded), that they decided to pack him and send him to the ICU to get the bleeding under control. His chest cavity was left open and he was sedated for over 30 hours. It was the hardest 30 hours of my life. His second surgery was perfect and he got stitched up and was able to come out of being sedated. His memory was foggy and we had to explain his surgery multiple times. Each time he cried and apologized. This man has since proved to the nursing staff how strong and stubborn he is.

Ross will be in the hospital for at least two more weeks. They are putting him a temporary pacemaker in. They are waiting two weeks to put a permanent pacemaker or defibrillator in depending on how his infection is. They will not put one in sooner because of the infection risk. 

We are all so proud of this man and so extremely grateful to continue to have him in our lives. If he didn’t know how much he was loved before by everyone, he sure does now