On Monday, April 17th, my Dad, Allan Bottolfson, had his second open heart surgery. His first was 10 years ago when he had a valve repaired. They found that the valve was failing, so he was scheduled to have a replacement done. The surgery was extremely difficult because when the surgeon got in, she found that the previous surgery was done improperly and had caused damage that hindered them from seeing the valve area. They thought they would lose him a couple of times, but she was able to get the new valve in blindly and by feel only. Because of the difficult surgery, on Thursday he went into AFib that caused an entire team to scramble on him most of the day. Recovery is going to be long and hard. Our family has already made several trips back and forth with hotel stays (2 hours from where we live) so that he is not alone. There is a phenomenon called “Pumphead”, where the brain is affected when you are put on heart and lung bypass during surgery. It causes depression, anxiety, confusion, and sometimes cognitive problems. My Dad is suffering from this greatly. We have decided as a family that someone should be with him all the time while he is hospitalized. Both of my parents live on SSDI, and I know that with the cost of gas, hotels, and food, they would be very thankful. My Dad only has Medicare, so they will be left with a lot of medical bills from the surgery, 5 days in ICU, and the rest of the hospital stay. This has been physically, emotionally, and financially difficult for our family. Any help would be greatly appreciated.