Kerry's Heart Fund

Kerry has a long and highly complicated history of heart problems.   In 1998 he had a Ross Procedure at University of Washington Hospital, which at the time was an experimental surgery.  They removed his aortic valve and put his own pulmonary valve in the position of the aortic valve, and replaced his pulmonary valve with a donor pulmonary valve. This held him over until his cardiologist discovered an ascending aortic aneurysm in 2014, leading to his second surgery in October 2014 at Providence in Everett . At this time they removed part of his ascending aorta and replaced it with a dacron tube, and replaced his aortic valve with an artificial aortic valve as well.  About 10 hours after that surgery, he suffered a heart attack to the right side of his heart due to a kink in his right coronary artery. He eventually recovered and returned to his normal life.  In January 2016, he had a scan that showed that he had a pseudoaneurysm (which is like a blood balloon) near the sutures where the artificial aortic valve was put in.  So, in January 2016 he underwent a pseudoaneurysm repair at Providence in Everett. Again, he was able to recover and return to his normal life.  In October 2016, he had CT scan to follow up on his surgery from January, and another pseudoaneurysm had formed, larger than last time.   Kerry was referred to University of Washington for evaluation for a heart transplant.  The transplant team evaluated him and he underwent several tests over a couple of months. The team decided to repeat a CT scan to see if the pseudoaneurysm had grown since his previous scan and it had. He was admitted to University of Washington Hospital on February 4th originally to be monitored and further evaluated until a heart became available to transplant.  But, after further testing they realized the hole in his heart was far too big to simply just “monitor” and the team told Kerry that he would need to have a total artificial heart placed to keep him alive until transplant.  He had an artificial heart placed on VALENTINE’S DAY and is doing quite well. His surgeon said that when he took Kerry’s heart out, the aortic root was only attached by “about three stitches” and he was amazed that he was even alive in that condition. He also said that the team has no clue as to why Kerry keeps developing aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms.  Kerry is truly a miracle!!!!!  His recovery time for the artificial heart will be a MINIMUM of 6 weeks in the hospital. If he does well and no heart comes available, he can possibly discharge home with a portable artificial heart machine until he can get a real heart. If there are complications, he may stay in the hospital until transplant (2-3 months).  Once a heart does become available for transplant he will have to have what is hoped to be his FINAL open heart surgery, and this will require another long recovery in the hospital, as well as 3 months of 24-hour care when he goes home.