Hello all, as some of you may remember I am TracyP's son. On Saturday around 12:30PM my dad suffered a heart attack. He was on the phone with my stepmother/his wife (Kathy) and began complaining of heartburn and heavy limbs. She told him to get ready and wait for me, that I was going to take him to the hospital. She wasn't home at the time and he will never get on an ambulance when he's conscious, he would have likely told them he was fine. I was just upstairs and she immediately called me after hanging up with my dad and asked me to get ready and take him to the hospital. By the time I got off of the phone with her and could throw on some shoes and get downstairs, he was unresponsive and not breathing. I called 911 and began CPR, so from the time he got off the phone with Kathy until compressions started was maybe 5-8 minutes. EMS arrived and they worked on him for nearly half an hour before finally getting a pulse back. He was taken to Rowan Medical Center in Salisbury and is in the CCU right now.
They said that he had actually had a minor heart attack due to 3 blockages, but he was still unconscious. They cooled his body temperature to around 95 degrees on Saturday afternoon to minimize damage done to the heart and brain and kept him sedated for the duration of the cooling protocol. On Sunday evening they began rewarming him and by Monday around noon had him off of all sedatives, pain medication, and nearly off of all the blood pressure medications they were using to keep his BP up. He began opening his eyes some time after the last of the painkillers were removed but he still was not really conscious. They've also been working to wean him from the ventilator. At the time of this post he is entirely off of all medications except for antibiotics and heparain (blood thinner). His BP and pulse are remaining stable on their own, and he is getting roughly half the assistance from the ventilator that he had originally and they are continually decreasing the ventilator. He still has some fluid on his lungs but they said they are seeing some slight improvements on that and once they get the ventilator down low enough he should start getting rid of the fluid more easily. He is still not really conscious but he has had his eyes open almost as much as closed today and Kathy and I both feel like he's tried to move his hands, and we've definitely seen him move his foot, so he is continuing to improve. The neurologist said he didn't think it was likely he had global brain damage but may have localized damage in one or more areas due to lack of oxygen during the heart attack. He's ordered an MRI to get a better look at possible damage as well as the swelling he still has on his brain. The good news about the localized damage over global damage is with localized damage there's a chance that his brain can adapt to whatever damage he may have.
Just a few minutes before submitting this post I asked him to move his leg and he raised it a couple inches off the bed right after I asked. A few minutes later he raised both legs and we could feel him pressing down with his arms. He's getting better all the time! He still has a lot ahead of him but these are all great signs! He has great doctors and nurses here but if there's anybody that can heal him it's God, and I truly believe he's doing just that. We would still greatly appreciate any prayers you would be willing to say for him. You can never pray too much!
If you have anything you'd like me to pass along to him I will be happy to do so. I'm sorry that it took me so long to let you all know, but today is really the first day I've felt positive enough about his prospects for recovery that I thought I could post anything...
Mods: If this is not in the correct forum, please feel free to move it. I thought User Announcements would be best, but I'm not really active here and very well could have put it in the wrong place...
UPDATES:
Thursday's update (8/18) -- click here to jump to update post
Sunday's update (8/21) -- click here to jump to updated thread
Notice of passing (8/22) -- click here to jump to updated thread
Matt's update on Tracy's final day (8/22) -- click here to jump to update post
Funeral Arrangements Announcement (8/23) -- click here to jump to updated thread
.
They said that he had actually had a minor heart attack due to 3 blockages, but he was still unconscious. They cooled his body temperature to around 95 degrees on Saturday afternoon to minimize damage done to the heart and brain and kept him sedated for the duration of the cooling protocol. On Sunday evening they began rewarming him and by Monday around noon had him off of all sedatives, pain medication, and nearly off of all the blood pressure medications they were using to keep his BP up. He began opening his eyes some time after the last of the painkillers were removed but he still was not really conscious. They've also been working to wean him from the ventilator. At the time of this post he is entirely off of all medications except for antibiotics and heparain (blood thinner). His BP and pulse are remaining stable on their own, and he is getting roughly half the assistance from the ventilator that he had originally and they are continually decreasing the ventilator. He still has some fluid on his lungs but they said they are seeing some slight improvements on that and once they get the ventilator down low enough he should start getting rid of the fluid more easily. He is still not really conscious but he has had his eyes open almost as much as closed today and Kathy and I both feel like he's tried to move his hands, and we've definitely seen him move his foot, so he is continuing to improve. The neurologist said he didn't think it was likely he had global brain damage but may have localized damage in one or more areas due to lack of oxygen during the heart attack. He's ordered an MRI to get a better look at possible damage as well as the swelling he still has on his brain. The good news about the localized damage over global damage is with localized damage there's a chance that his brain can adapt to whatever damage he may have.
Just a few minutes before submitting this post I asked him to move his leg and he raised it a couple inches off the bed right after I asked. A few minutes later he raised both legs and we could feel him pressing down with his arms. He's getting better all the time! He still has a lot ahead of him but these are all great signs! He has great doctors and nurses here but if there's anybody that can heal him it's God, and I truly believe he's doing just that. We would still greatly appreciate any prayers you would be willing to say for him. You can never pray too much!
If you have anything you'd like me to pass along to him I will be happy to do so. I'm sorry that it took me so long to let you all know, but today is really the first day I've felt positive enough about his prospects for recovery that I thought I could post anything...
Mods: If this is not in the correct forum, please feel free to move it. I thought User Announcements would be best, but I'm not really active here and very well could have put it in the wrong place...
UPDATES:
Thursday's update (8/18) -- click here to jump to update post
Sunday's update (8/21) -- click here to jump to updated thread
Notice of passing (8/22) -- click here to jump to updated thread
Matt's update on Tracy's final day (8/22) -- click here to jump to update post
Funeral Arrangements Announcement (8/23) -- click here to jump to updated thread
.
Last edited by a moderator:
