Rick’s Heart Needs a Second Chance: Please Help Now

My name is Cyn and my husband Rick has just been given another chance at life. He is on a form of life support called a Left Ventricle Assist Device or LVAD. His story is not for the weak or easily triggered by cardiac issues but it is of a man who is trying to be strong and trying to stay in our lives. It is of a man who has helped many throughout the years or stirred the pot to mess with you. He has a wonderful sense of humor and as much as he wants to shut those out of his life that have done him wrong, he can’t. Yes, he is that man. You could stop talking to him for years, pick up the phone and say I need a favor and he would bend over backwards to make it happen. He is the kind of person that can get fired while in ICU and after he gets out have lengthy conversations with the person fired him. He will give you the shirt off his back. Invite him to dinner and he will attempt to buy the ingredients for you. This beautiful soul now needs help. This time the only fix for him will be the heart transplant. Last time we were able to get him to a place that gave us 8 more years before this time came. It was sped along by Advent hospitals lack of knowledge or care. Knowing that he had congestive heart failure they put 22 lbs of fluid on him in 6 days. They collapsed his lower lungs, grossly enlarged his heart causing the right side of the heart to fail as well. They caused injury to his already chronic kidney failure and left him barely alive when they discharged him. We worked with what I had available for several days until he started getting worse. His blood pressure dropped to. 84/44. I took him to Winter Haven hospital where he stayed there for 8 days while they stabilized him before they transported him to St. Joseph’s hospital. After a transesophogeal echo or TEE they immediately transferred him into ICU. After a week in ICU they put the Impella 5.1 in his heart in hopes to relieve some of the enlargement and to get the right side to start doing its job better. We were not sure this was going to happen. The Impella 5.1 can have adverse effects such as tearing up his platelets and profuse bleeding from the nose and wound sites. It was a constant need for blood, platelets, albumin and extra protein. A week later the pronounced him stable enough to receive his LVAD. Here is the triggering gruesome part but it is important for everyone to understand the severity because he will play it off as he is fine. He will put on that face until he is in the grave because he doesn’t want anyone know he isn’t good especially his family. He feels if they know the seriousness of it he will be a burden to them and look weak He doesn’t want people to worry about him. He is on life support. This pumps for him! His heart no longer works. It isn’t like having a stent put in and everything is good. Not to down play the need for stents or the seriousness of the situation. He doesn’t have a heartbeat or blood pressure. The mechanical pump works it for him. The surgery consists of putting a 2 inch hole in the bottom of his heart and putting a pump into the whole. They then cut open another part of his heart to run a small tube through it. They put him on bypass to do this. Once taken off he suffered a massive heart attac which did have several effects to his body as well. His defibrillator went off six times and exhausted itself and then they had to manually shock him. They ran a driveline through a hole in his stomach. The driveline hooks to a controller and plugs into the wall or into a set of 6lb batteries that he carries if we want to go to the store or doctors office. The dressing around the driveline needs to be changed every 2 to 3 days and to watch if any infection sets in. When he showers he has to put the batteries and controller in a waterproof bag and add extra waterproof dressing on top of his normal dressing. Aquaguard to the rescue. He has to take an insane amount of blood thinners to keep from having internal clotting around the pump or vents. His pump is always thumping his left side ribcage and under his left breast. We are constantly needing to monitor his controllers speed and flow and his mean arterial pressure or maps. He has to have a trained LVAD caregiver with him at all times. I am that person. If his driveline breaks or battery dies, controller messes up or alarm goes off I have to vigilant and ready to care for his immediate needs. There is not a hospital in Polk county that can care for any LVAD situations. The closest are St. Joseph’s and Tampa General. Both are over an hour away. We are in need of your help. We need to be able to keep the electric on so he can plug in his batteries, we need to keep the Internet going so he is in constant contact with the hospital, we need to fix the roof so he can safely live here, we need to keep him in a cool environment because if he gets hot or his battery or controller gets over 114° it can cause major complications. I will need to replace the window AC in our area. It is quickly dying and has also collected a white mold from the moisture and humidity. I need to purchase an adjustable bed so he can be able to come to bed and not sleep in the recliner part of the couch. I have to start saving for next year’s deductible and out of pocket expenses because the amount of supplies he needs daily is crazy. I need to find 2 oversized extra fluffy recliners because he has slept so much in this one you can feel the metal. We also need to be prepared to leave Florida in case of a major hurricane as he can not be without electric. He has to plug in to survive. I need to be able to get a generator just in case we can’t leave for whatever reason. Hurricane season is upon us and I am truly dreading the thought of it. While all of this sits in front of me to take care of just for his survival, medical bills have begun to be denied by the insurance company. I am sure we are going to see quite a large sum as we are already over $60,000 in denied claims and over a $500,000 in bills received by the insurance company and still growing. I worry that as those bills come in I won’t be able to meet the demand they have to continue service. It is a struggle and heartbreaking to think of all while this amazing man sits fretting over bills, food and gas that he can not help with. We also need to start prepping for paying for heart transplant and the fundraising that goes with that. They make us fundraise to cover the costs before and after the transplant. The cost of everyday bills and the hospital bills that will follow along with medicines he will need for the rest of his life. To say we are drowning is an understatement. To say everyone out there is feeling the pinch from inflation is oversimplifying life now. To swallow our pride and reach out to ask for your help in anyway you can makes me feel inadequate to take care of his needs. But I am trying. I will not sit here and just beg for your money, I will be ramping up selling decals and more as we did before. I will be doing most of that from home until we get an appropriate size office built, with a portable ac, at the flea market. Once we get that we will be there on the weekends as well. I also have a small spot at the Lakeland Antique Mall. The spot has shrunk in the move but we are still there and trying. They have also been amazing supporters through this whole thing. They picked up the slack for us a long with our kids and friend Nelson. I can’t thank them enough. If you guys get a chance stop in there and tell them Rick and Cyn sent you. My hopes is to be on our feet quickly, for his social security disability to be approved as quick as possible as he does qualify for compassionate allowance, which still takes 5 months from the time of approval before he gets the first dollar and 2 years before he gets Medicare. I keep in contact with them weekly so that I can try to push it along. They tell you to save money to cover at least 3 months of bills in case of an emergency situation, I am here to tell you to save more. You never know when you will be in this unfortunate type of situation. Community is all you have to help you beyond those situations and I am hoping my community will be able to spare from their humble home to mine to help me get him to the next step in life. To get him to the heart transplant. I will not in vain offer nothing for your help. Those that donate $25 or more will receive a LVAD supporter decal, any donations of $50 or more will receive the LVAD supporter decal and and additional 5 inch decal of your choice. Just contact me with your shipping information after your donation and I will send out your decal. God bless and thank you for your support