Saturday, November 3, 2012

Dick's health: the beginning

Last night Dick exhibited 6 (out of 8) classic symptoms for a heart attack. I rowed him to shore, the paramedics met us, and he was transported to Wilcox Hospital in Lihue. They did as much as they could for him, but he needed more. At about 5 this morning, he was life-flighted to Straub Hospital in Honolulu, I was able to ride along.


By 9:30 am, he was wheeled into the OR for open heart surgery. He has four big things wrong: fluid around the heart, a leaky valve, an aortic dissection (the lining separated from the wall), and an aneurysm. Without the surgery, his survival was about 5%, they estimated his loss of mortality at 1%/hour.

(I wish I could change the name of this blog right now.)
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousNovember 7, 2012 at 10:06 PM

    Don't worry Arlete we understand that life-threatening health issues are no 'fun', and that the chief carer has to endeavour to stay as upbeat as is possible for the sake of the one who needs caring for. I'm guessing one thing you might be thankful for is that you had learned to row, but so nerveracking just the same...............Marion

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