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Michelle Blair- Ronan hasn't added a story.
David is a husband, and father of 2 girls, ages 12 & 17, and a severely disabled 17 year old boy. David is also a volunteer firefighter in our community, although he has been on a leave of absence to deal with issues for his son, and working a lot of overtime to make ends meet. David is the only one who works, because his wife has to be home to care for their son. They will have no income for some time, as David will not be able to work for about 6 months post - surgery. Money is always tight for them, even when David is working. Raising a disabled child is very expensive , they need a lot of things that "normal" children don't. They have to spend several hundred dollars a month just on medications. They are never the type of people to ask for help, so I am asking for help on their behalf. If you can help at all, please do so.
This is his story as his wife tells it.
" I've had some inquiries about David and
the AVR surgery he had done when he was only 29. At the time the
surgeon told us he was one of only 5 patients that require this
surgery at such a young age in his practice every year. David was
born with a congenital malformation of his aortic valve that was not
diagnosed until he was about 26 years old. By the time he was 29, his
condition was so severe that the cardiac surgeon told us that his
valve would need to be replaced within 6 months. I was 6 months
pregnant when we got this fabulous news. We decided together that it
would be better for him to have it done before I delivered rather than
after. The kids had their hearts checked out and thankfully do not
have this issue which can be hereditary. Our youngest had her cardiac
ultrasound done when I was about 7 months pregnant. David had his AVR
surgery 3/13/2001. A severe complication occurred and he was as close
to death as I wish to ever experience again in my lifetime, although
we have been told the surgery at some point will need to be done
again. We hope with new technology that can be avoided. Our daughter
was born in April with her Daddy sore from a still healing breastbone
and could not even pick her up. He was not allowed to pick up anything
over 10lbs. She was 10lbs 10oz when she was born. He could hold her if
she was placed in his lap, but could not support her weight at all
with his upper body for fear his breastbone would not heal correctly.
He has had pericarditis 3 times since the surgery with the very real
fear that removal of his pericardium would become necessary. That
would open up a whole new can of worms, making his heart vulnerable to
many more things. Thankfully, that has not become necessary thus far.
Anyway, that is his story and how we arrived where he was yesterday. "
The yesterday she is speaking of was a few days ago. David was at work, and started having chest pains. He was then transported to the local hospital. After some testing, and being placed in ICU, he was transferred to Cooper Hospital. They determined that he had a heart attack, also that the valve had significantly deteriorated, and would need to be replaced again. The original one was supposed to last 15-25 years, it has only been 12 years.
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