ILBMF
Well-Known Member
Just need to vent amongst some fellow brewers. Long story short, my wife Denise (46) had been diagnosed with a ''sub aortic membrane'' about 5 years ago. Basically, if they remove the main outlet of the heart after stopping it and bypassing the blood through a machine during the operation, they can look into the heart there's a membrane/tissue growth in front of the valve causing a bottleneck effect. For 5 years you could hear her heart make a squish sound rather than a boom boom just listening with my ear against her chest.
Well, they operated on her yesterday to pretty much stop the heart, bypass the blood and cut this membrane thing out and back together again...no problem...wrong, long day BS. First, this is one of the best facilities in the world and the head of the department did the surgery. All went well except the heart was enlarged from all the back pressure which damaged the opposite valve a bit causing it lo leak when it's supposed to be closed. That was easily repaired with a small mandrel part that is permanently attached to the valve to make it maintain it's proper shape. Not a problem and the heart will naturally shrink down to size. Just glad this was found now and not years from now causing a permanent valve replacement. Another problem was the electrical signals from the brain to the heart stopped working all together. They had to restart the heart and use a pacemaker to complete what the nervous system usually does...complete the electrical circuit to keep the heart beating in proper time.
That was cleared up and the heart started doing it's own thing within 5-6 hours...great, right? Wrong! My wife's cousin and I were standing there in the ICU room at her side and we noticed her right arm and leg had NO movement. The nurse wasn't too startled by this and made no big deal about it other than repeatedly saying ''Denise, can you move your toes and squeeze my hand?'' They made no big deal about it.
Then the head of the heart dept surgeon (the main man) Bartley Griffith came in just strolling through (he performed the surgery, world renowned big shot, great guy). He asked me, ''how's she doing sir?'' I said, looking good other than her lack of movement on her left side''. He yanked the sheets off of her and stepped up the team like a shot of caffeine in the arm. The immediately did a CT scan and sent her to the hyperbaric chamber to squash what may have been air bubbles in her blood causing stroke symptoms. At that point it had been 18 hours and I went home for pair of IPA's and some sleep.
Well, they operated on her yesterday to pretty much stop the heart, bypass the blood and cut this membrane thing out and back together again...no problem...wrong, long day BS. First, this is one of the best facilities in the world and the head of the department did the surgery. All went well except the heart was enlarged from all the back pressure which damaged the opposite valve a bit causing it lo leak when it's supposed to be closed. That was easily repaired with a small mandrel part that is permanently attached to the valve to make it maintain it's proper shape. Not a problem and the heart will naturally shrink down to size. Just glad this was found now and not years from now causing a permanent valve replacement. Another problem was the electrical signals from the brain to the heart stopped working all together. They had to restart the heart and use a pacemaker to complete what the nervous system usually does...complete the electrical circuit to keep the heart beating in proper time.
That was cleared up and the heart started doing it's own thing within 5-6 hours...great, right? Wrong! My wife's cousin and I were standing there in the ICU room at her side and we noticed her right arm and leg had NO movement. The nurse wasn't too startled by this and made no big deal about it other than repeatedly saying ''Denise, can you move your toes and squeeze my hand?'' They made no big deal about it.
Then the head of the heart dept surgeon (the main man) Bartley Griffith came in just strolling through (he performed the surgery, world renowned big shot, great guy). He asked me, ''how's she doing sir?'' I said, looking good other than her lack of movement on her left side''. He yanked the sheets off of her and stepped up the team like a shot of caffeine in the arm. The immediately did a CT scan and sent her to the hyperbaric chamber to squash what may have been air bubbles in her blood causing stroke symptoms. At that point it had been 18 hours and I went home for pair of IPA's and some sleep.
