Tom and youngest daughter, Katherine
Photograph taken while Tom was in the hospital.
Tom and I live in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. We have four children. Our oldest daughter, 27, is married to a wonderful young man and they have a terrific little son who will be 3 in March. We have twin 17 year old sons and our youngest daughter is 10. I work for the local school district as a behavior mentor grades K-12 , and up until the time of his surgery, Tom worked for the school district as well for the facilities dept. Tom was born in Bathurst, New Brunswick, the youngest of nine children. He had five brothers and three sisters. Tom's father died of a sudden heart attack at the age of sixty and Tom lost three brothers to heart disease as well. One of the three who died, had undergone open heart surgery for a valve problem back in the late sixties. Of the three brothers living, including Tom, all suffer with heart disease, however, since Tom's surgery, for him, that is a thing of the past! True, the experience of undergoing an open heart surgery for a life threatening condition can be traumatic, however, once it is behind you, the ability to live each day free from fear and pain is life changing!
Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm and Valve Replacement Surgery
12 March 2005
I was just reading the story 'Aneurysm and Valve - a rare survival' and wanted to share that my husband underwent a very similar surgery in late April of last year.
My husband had a spot on his lung and a lung scan revealed a shadow around the heart. Further testing revealed that he had a rather large aortic aneurysm in his thoracic cavity very near the heart. About this time, he was also experiencing persistant and severe chest pain so he underwent the angiogram procedure whereby they use dye and travel from the groin to the heart in an effort to diagnose his problem. In addition to the aneurysm, they found that my husband had a very severe narrowing of his aortic valve (Dr. believes this was congenital) and a main artery 90 % blocked. The recommendation was open heart surgery asap to fix all three-however, there was some concern with regard to my husband's lungs and whether or not they could withstand the surgery as he has moderately severe COPD, chronic bronchitis and bronchiostasis.
He did undergo the surgey and received a St. Jude's mechanical valve, an aneurysm repair with Dacron grafting, and a bypass.
Following the surgery, my husband ran into several frightening complications and was very near death on several occasions. Right from the beginning, he had trouble waking up after his surgery. The doctor said some people do not respond so well to being on the heart lung machine such a long time and therefore have a harder time coming around. Also, having been on the heart lung machine can cause hallucinations afterward -which my husband also experienced.
His first night out of intensive care following the surgery he began to run a high fever, his heart was racing (204 beats per minute), he was having extreme trouble breathing due to his weak lungs and the trauma of the surgery, his blood pressure dropped alarmingly low and because the blood pressure was so low, he went into kidney failure. Miraculously, after a long, frightening night of which he remembers very little - and the excellent care of a wonderful surgeon - he began to stabilize.
Following my husband's release from hospital, he continued to struggle. He suffered with periods of breathlessness and for a time of two weeks he slept sitting up, for only minutes at a time, and would often wake up gasping for air and pass out. This too was very frightening. He went through several periods when he forgot where he was or forgot what had happened. One day he had no recollection that he had heart surgery and was extremely shocked when I put his hand over the incision on his chest. At the beginning of his third week post op I noticed that the breathlessness had worsened dramatically. I feared heart failure, as his feet had swollen to twice their normal size. We visited our family GP who said my husband had just gone through a very dramatic and serious surgery-much more so than the average heart surgery - "these symptoms are par for the course."
On the second day following this visit, the shortness of breath had worsened and my husband appeared to be swollen with fluid not only in the feet but in the legs and abdomen as well. A call to our GP urged me not to worry. I hung up the phone and called the hospital leaving messages for my husband's surgeon and cardiologist. The cardiologist called me back and I told him I felt we were definitely in heart failure. He and the surgeon met us in the emergency room and immediately determined that my husband was in serious trouble. My husband was placed in the surgical intensive care unit where he spent the next several weeks. My husband's heart, the doctor told us , was "weeping" blood into the sack around the heart and also around the lungs. The pressure of this fluid around the heart was in danger of compromising the new heart valve - one lung had already collapsed. The diagnosis was a condition called 'Dressler's Syndrome.' The surgeons were reluctant to operate again so soon because they feared infection where he had a heart valve - so they treated him with massive doses (IV) of Lasix to try to get some fluid off. Slowly, this met with some success.
Following his move to the heart floor on his third week in hospital, he once again began to experience a worsening of his condition and testing showed that the fluid was accumulating rapidly all over again. At this point my poor husband had what they termed 'pericardial tamponade' and had to undergo a pericardialcentesis. This is a procedure where they make an incision in the chest and attempt to drain the blood from around the heart. Following this, he made a slow recovery with the continuing help of IV Lasix and finally after six weeks total in hospital he was able to come home.
My husband did experience all of the usual post operative discomfort. The painful chest incision, the abdomenal incisions and the leg incision. He also had a lot of pain in his arms, which the surgeon said was due to the arms being bent back and under the body for so many hours.
The whole thing was quite an awful experience. Fortunately, the hospital my husband was in, was very good and I was able to spend most of his hospitalization sitting by his side.
He now continues to recover slowly. He of course, will have to take Coumadin and Lasix in addition to lung medication for the rest of his life.The surgeon told us that following heart surgery, the sternum is not stable for a whole year! My husband is a terrific person and faced all that he went through very bravely and with an awesome sense of humor. We are indeed very fortunate to have him with us.
Discussion, comments, or questions: Laurel Cormier
© Copyright 2004 Laurel
Cormier
All Rights Reserved - Fair Use
acknowledged
