Greg was born a healthy baby boy weighing 6lbs. 9 0z and 19 inches long.  At 13 months old as he slept in his crib, I noticed he was breathing as if he were in pain. He's dad an EMT at the time checked him out and told me it was all in my head.  It was around 12:30 at night but that did not stop me.  I hailed a cab to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.  As he was being triaged the nurse noticed that he was pale. Not sure of the nurses findings, I got nervous as I heard that a Cardiologist was paged.  My son's noisey sleep was an alert that he was in trouble. As he was checked by the cardiologist they admitted him into the Intensive Care Unit with a diagnosis of Cardiomyopathy. Cardiomyopathy is a weakening of the heart muscle.   By 4 am me and my than husband were given the worst news parents should never have to hear.  Our son's life was hanging in the balance and the probrability of him making it to the morning was slim if any. The morning came and my son was still alive.  At this time we are talking possible Heart Transplant.  It was hard to imagine any parent having to go through the pain of loosing a child. so if this was going to be his saving grace, I said let's do it.  My son was intubated and was for about 2 weeks. As he was being extubated the Doctors said it was just a miracle how he recovered.  We left the hospital after a month  later on 10 meds.  I bought myself a notebook, wrote down the name of the meds, the dosage, and what they were for.    I became his personal nurse as I watched over his sleep and took him to his doctors appointments. He was released from the docotors care at the age of 2.  I was instruced  to have him be seen by a cardiologist once he became a teenager.  We started going to St. Petersburg, All children's Hospital.  He was being seen by a Cardiologist there for about 2 years.  My son was doing great and of course as any teenager thought he could conquer the world.  His  health has deteriorated in the last month.  He called me one evening and told me he was feeling as if he had the a flu.  I asked  him to please go to the urgent care and be checked out.  Later I received a phone call from him that he was being transported via ambulance to Sarasota Memorial Hospital.  While under the care of Sarasota Memorial they discovered that he had fluid around his heart, a pulmonary emoblism and an ejection fraction of 10-15%. Ejection fraction is a measurement of the percentage of blood leaving your heart each time it contracts. A normal ejection fraction is 55-70%.  He was discharged from the hospital after 4 days on medications.  2 days later my son went to have his coumadin level checked with is one of the medications that he has to take that  prevent blood clots. While in the coumadin clinic, one of the Nurse Practitioners, noticed that he could barely walk without  gettting fatigued.  She checked him out and decided to have him go straight to the hospital.  He showed up in the ER of Bayfront Port Charlotte.  The discovery they made while he was there was scary.  After undergoing test and several procedures the doctors concurred, my son's health was not where it should be for being a 20 year old.  if nothing were to be done and he would not take medications as instructed by his physicians, he would not last a year. His heart was that weak and not functioning as it should.

The Cardiologist at Bayfront decided  to transport him to Tampa General to start prelimary testing to be able to put him on the transplant list.  All these test would give them an accurate prognosis.

He is now home after being in the Hospital for about 3 weeks.  He was sent home with a Primacor drip which is infused through his pic line, about 7 different medications and a life vest. He has to be seen by the Transplant Cardiologis at Tampa General  once a week for the first month and every other week thereafter.  Greg cannot work he is disabled due to the severity of his condition. He has insurance but with all the meds, nurses drawing his blood at home and all his needs, it shortly becomes costly with the out of pocket expenses..  We are asking for donations to help Greg get through these tough financial times.  Any little bit helps!!