Over the past five weeks, my life has changed in ways I never could have imagined.

What started as a trip to the ER at Thunder Bay Regional with suspected pneumonia quickly turned into something far more serious. I was diagnosed with heart failure, with fluid flooding my lungs. With IV Lasix, I was finally able to breathe again—but that was just the beginning.

An angiogram revealed four major blockages in my heart, including one in my left main artery. I was immediately prepared for emergency transfer to Toronto General Hospital for a quadruple bypass surgery.

The surgery itself did not go as planned.

During a bypass procedure, the heart is stopped while machines take over breathing and circulation. After the grafts were completed, the surgical team attempted to restart my heart—but it didn’t respond right away. When it did, it went into a dangerous arrhythmia and then cardiac arrest.

During this time, I regained partial consciousness. I experienced moments I still relive—confusion, fear, and flashes of awareness while my body was in crisis. In that state, I unintentionally removed my intubation tubes, which took away my ability to breathe. The medical team acted quickly, restarted my heart using an external pacemaker, and re-intubated me.

I was placed into a medically induced coma to give my heart a chance to recover.

I spent six days in the ICU before being moved back to a regular unit. Follow-up imaging showed significant and lasting damage to my heart, and I required the implantation of an ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) to regulate my heart rhythm and protect me if it stops again.

In total, I have spent over five weeks in the hospital—two weeks in Thunder Bay and three weeks in Toronto—facing a life-threatening condition far from home and largely on my own.

I am now beginning the long road to recovery. This experience has not only taken a physical and emotional toll, but it has also created significant financial strain due to time away from work, travel, and ongoing medical needs.

I’m asking for support to help cover living expenses, recovery costs, and the challenges that come with rebuilding after a major cardiac event. Any help, no matter the size, will make a meaningful difference as I focus on healing and moving forward.