Jayme’s Road to Recovery
Donation protected
Please take a moment to read our story. My husband, Jayme, has been my friend since we were in our very early 20’s. We started dating in 2013 and got married this past December 23, 2018 in a small ceremony at Phillipe Park with our daughter Bella, now 13, and our parents, siblings and closest family and friends. We are blessed to have each other. Jayme is not only my husband but my best friend. Every day without him at home is harder than the day before.
Jayme was born with an aortic valve heart defect and has had multiple open heart surgeries in his life. About two years ago he started having cardiac issues and we began research to replace his aortic valve but in the process of many specialist visits and testing it was found that he was not a good candidate for that replacement at that time.
As time went on, and Jayme went for more testing and different specialists it was found that he had other underlying issues that were adding to him not feeling well all the time. He was tired and his head and legs hurt all the time plus he just wasn’t sleeping. His breathing was labored, first upon activity but then as a regular part of his every day life. He was swollen from edema and got to where he had a hard time walking.
This past January he had an increasingly hard time breathing and was so swollen with edema I took him to the ER. He was admitted and spent 12 days in the hospital where it was determined he was in Congestive Heart Failure. After multiple treatments they got his swelling down and his heart regulated and sent him home with a lot of new meds and tons of follow ups.
While meeting with the cardiologist and pulmonologist it was determined that he has severe pulmonary hypertension which is very high blood pressure within the lungs. He went for sleep studies and it was determined he has sleep apnea and was just recently put on a Bi Pap machine which provides a flow of oxygen via mask while he sleeps at night. He was still acclimating to it prior to this.
This past Tuesday night May 28, 2019, Jayme and I attended our daughter Bella’s awards ceremony at school. It was very hot and his breathing was very labored. By the time he got home from the ceremony he was extremely out of breathe. He got up to go change his clothes in our bedroom and suddenly passed out. I was thankfully in the kitchen and I ran to him. He was out cold and I could not rouse him. I called 911 and the fire dept paramedics came and by that time he was conscious but very confused. Paramedics called an ambulance and off he went to the ER once again.
Upon admittance it was found that Jayme was in atrial fibrillation or A Fib, which means his heart rate was out of rhythm. He was also in renal failure. The drs put him on a drug called Cardizem and he stayed overnight in a regular room. They had him on oxygen and were monitoring him. In the morning he was having a hard time catching his breath so I asked the nurse to raise his oxygen. She came in to do his vitals and his blood pressure started to plummet. They could not get it to comeback back up so they decided to cardiovert him, which means they had to shock his heart back into rhythm. They sedated him and put him on a ventilator to do this. They were able to shock his heart into rhythm but left him on the ventilator so they could drain the edema and basically keep him comfortable while his body was healing. The plan was for him to be on the ventilator for a day or two at most but it became evident that he was unable to be taken off of the ventilator because he was unable to breathe on his own. They have tried performing an SBT (spontaneous breathing test) multiple times which is a test to determine if he can breathe on his own. They take him off of sedation, shut the ventilator off and see if he can take breaths on his own. He was unable to take big breaths and with his breathing so shallow the drs did not want to take him off the vent. In the last few days his blood pressure has been dropping significantly while they have tried SBT’s so he is just not ready to come off of the vent. He has been intubated and on life support since Wednesday May 29, 2019.
We have been blessed to have to have a wonderful medical team of doctors and nurses who have jumped to Jayme’s side and are doing everything they can to help. Since he is so young (43) they are stumped as to the multiple system failure and have been trying new procedures and treatments all the time. They have taken their own personal time researching in order to help him. They try twice a day to get him off of the ventilator. The longer he is on it the more dependent he can become. He has developed Ventilator Associated Pnuemonia (VAP) and the doctor had to go in to perform a bronchoscopy to clear some of the fluid building up within his lungs. We are hoping this will help soon.
At this time we have no idea how long he with be in critical care or when or if he can get back to work. Him losing his income significantly impacts us and without income we will have no health insurance not to mention the growing medical expenses.
This is where I am hoping you can help. Those of you who know me know I am not one to ask for help. This has been a very humbling situation for me. My brother in law, our family and friends have gone above and beyond helping to get our daughter to and from school/camp/dance activities and keeping our fridge and bellies full. What we need is financial help. I have no idea what the future holds but the bills are growing and I have to prepare for his care, the cost of Cobra insurance as well as meeting our family household needs.
Please consider donating to help us during this crisis. Even $5 is a help. Anything is more than we have.
Thank you from from us and from Jayme. I will update as I can. Know that we appreciate all that everyone does for us - especially prayers and positive energy because we have faith that those help significantly. So even if you can’t donate please take a moment to pray or wish a good thought for Jayme’s well being and our continued mental health support. That helps me more than you can know.
Thank you and God bless you all.
Jessica Hernandez
Jayme was born with an aortic valve heart defect and has had multiple open heart surgeries in his life. About two years ago he started having cardiac issues and we began research to replace his aortic valve but in the process of many specialist visits and testing it was found that he was not a good candidate for that replacement at that time.
As time went on, and Jayme went for more testing and different specialists it was found that he had other underlying issues that were adding to him not feeling well all the time. He was tired and his head and legs hurt all the time plus he just wasn’t sleeping. His breathing was labored, first upon activity but then as a regular part of his every day life. He was swollen from edema and got to where he had a hard time walking.
This past January he had an increasingly hard time breathing and was so swollen with edema I took him to the ER. He was admitted and spent 12 days in the hospital where it was determined he was in Congestive Heart Failure. After multiple treatments they got his swelling down and his heart regulated and sent him home with a lot of new meds and tons of follow ups.
While meeting with the cardiologist and pulmonologist it was determined that he has severe pulmonary hypertension which is very high blood pressure within the lungs. He went for sleep studies and it was determined he has sleep apnea and was just recently put on a Bi Pap machine which provides a flow of oxygen via mask while he sleeps at night. He was still acclimating to it prior to this.
This past Tuesday night May 28, 2019, Jayme and I attended our daughter Bella’s awards ceremony at school. It was very hot and his breathing was very labored. By the time he got home from the ceremony he was extremely out of breathe. He got up to go change his clothes in our bedroom and suddenly passed out. I was thankfully in the kitchen and I ran to him. He was out cold and I could not rouse him. I called 911 and the fire dept paramedics came and by that time he was conscious but very confused. Paramedics called an ambulance and off he went to the ER once again.
Upon admittance it was found that Jayme was in atrial fibrillation or A Fib, which means his heart rate was out of rhythm. He was also in renal failure. The drs put him on a drug called Cardizem and he stayed overnight in a regular room. They had him on oxygen and were monitoring him. In the morning he was having a hard time catching his breath so I asked the nurse to raise his oxygen. She came in to do his vitals and his blood pressure started to plummet. They could not get it to comeback back up so they decided to cardiovert him, which means they had to shock his heart back into rhythm. They sedated him and put him on a ventilator to do this. They were able to shock his heart into rhythm but left him on the ventilator so they could drain the edema and basically keep him comfortable while his body was healing. The plan was for him to be on the ventilator for a day or two at most but it became evident that he was unable to be taken off of the ventilator because he was unable to breathe on his own. They have tried performing an SBT (spontaneous breathing test) multiple times which is a test to determine if he can breathe on his own. They take him off of sedation, shut the ventilator off and see if he can take breaths on his own. He was unable to take big breaths and with his breathing so shallow the drs did not want to take him off the vent. In the last few days his blood pressure has been dropping significantly while they have tried SBT’s so he is just not ready to come off of the vent. He has been intubated and on life support since Wednesday May 29, 2019.
We have been blessed to have to have a wonderful medical team of doctors and nurses who have jumped to Jayme’s side and are doing everything they can to help. Since he is so young (43) they are stumped as to the multiple system failure and have been trying new procedures and treatments all the time. They have taken their own personal time researching in order to help him. They try twice a day to get him off of the ventilator. The longer he is on it the more dependent he can become. He has developed Ventilator Associated Pnuemonia (VAP) and the doctor had to go in to perform a bronchoscopy to clear some of the fluid building up within his lungs. We are hoping this will help soon.
At this time we have no idea how long he with be in critical care or when or if he can get back to work. Him losing his income significantly impacts us and without income we will have no health insurance not to mention the growing medical expenses.
This is where I am hoping you can help. Those of you who know me know I am not one to ask for help. This has been a very humbling situation for me. My brother in law, our family and friends have gone above and beyond helping to get our daughter to and from school/camp/dance activities and keeping our fridge and bellies full. What we need is financial help. I have no idea what the future holds but the bills are growing and I have to prepare for his care, the cost of Cobra insurance as well as meeting our family household needs.
Please consider donating to help us during this crisis. Even $5 is a help. Anything is more than we have.
Thank you from from us and from Jayme. I will update as I can. Know that we appreciate all that everyone does for us - especially prayers and positive energy because we have faith that those help significantly. So even if you can’t donate please take a moment to pray or wish a good thought for Jayme’s well being and our continued mental health support. That helps me more than you can know.
Thank you and God bless you all.
Jessica Hernandez
Organizer
Jessica Hernandez
Organizer
Palm Harbor, FL
