Steven Baglioni's Journey Towards a New Heart

Hello everyone, as you probably already heard by now I had a cardiac episode last May 21st 2018 at Beverly Hospital due to a beta blocker which dropped my blood pressure very quickly and stopped my heart. I coded (literally died) for approximately 4 minutes, I thank God and the quick response of the cardiac care team on duty that day who administered CPR to save my life! I spent 2 days recovering in ICU then I was transferred to the cardiac care unit at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. Upon my arrival I was immediately surrounded by an incredible team of doctors they were very quick to assess my condition. They began draining my body of the excess fluid built up from severe cardiomyopathy and low cardiac output with an ejection fraction of 10 . Amazingly within 2 weeks they were able to drain approximately 50 lbs. of fluid off my heart, helped me regain the strength to walk again and adjusted all my medications so I could successfully be discharged to go back home. Upon returning to my daily lifestyle I tried to maintain my heart condition, closely monitoring myself and following up with my primary care physician. I was adjusting fine for the first few months, then my symptoms started to appear again. Over the past 6 months my health began to gradually decline, I was unable to function even to perform simple daily tasks my ability to see my clients was diminishing and eventually I stopped working altogether. I recently returned to Tufts Medical Center this past Monday May1st 2019 for a routine cardiac exam and was told that I have excessive fluid built up again in my heart, they immediately admitted me into the cardiac ward to re-assess my heart condition. Over the past week they have been performing many tests to determine the actual strength of my heart and what the best course of action will be to take. The doctors diagnosis as of Monday May 6th has shown that I have severe cardiac myopathy due to congestive heart failure with atrial fibrillation which is causing my heart to become very weak and is not able to pump the blood supply properly throughout my body. The outstanding cardiac team at Tufts has informed me that I need to have an LVAD (left ventricular assist device) heart pump surgically implanted into my heart and a defibrillator to protect me from going into cardiac arrest. This whole process will take approximately 16 days to recover in the hospital,and months of recovery at home. After this major procedure they will eventually be placing me on the heart transplant list to patiently await the miraculous gift of a new heart! As you can only imagine this entire ordeal has been extremely stressful and overwhelming to deal with for Elena and I. All of this has certainly been truly life changing in so many ways! I want to thank each and everyone of you for taking the time to read my story. Inevitably due to our situation expenses are beginning to steadily increase! We have decided to start a gofundme page and we greatly appreciate any help you can offer to support us in our time of need!