A miracle -- a successful heart transplant by UCSD Thornton Hospital

I became a blood donor because I was grateful that my mom received blood to save her. She has gone through 7 bone & joint-replacement surgeries. I became a registered organ donor after my brother-in-law's heart transplant in 2005. This was written in 2005: Wednesday afternoon my mom & I went to San Diego because my brother-in-law suffered a severe heart attack. Doctors performed an angioplasty, and then his artery clogged up again. They had to perform an open-heart surgery. That was a major surgery where they did a coronary artery bypass graft. They take saphenous veins from your legs and put them in your heart. They put it in his right coronary artery. The doctors said he is as critically ill as they come --the worse possible cases that exist. He went through another major surgery on Thursday to insert an artificial right ventricle valve. They put in a right ventricular assist device. He is on an Abiomed machine that is doing the work of the right side of his heart. Blood from the right ventricle to the machine, and then the machine pumps the blood back to the pulmonary artery and then back through the left atrium and left ventricle and continuing with the normal blood flow. He has over sixteen bags of IV's hanging, three monitors, all kinds of TV-like screens -- whatever they're called. He has tubes in this mouth, in his chest, and in his legs. There is a machine circulating his blood for him which, I think, is attached to his leg. There was talk of his having had four heart attacks in one 24 hour period and 3 or 4 surgeries within fewer than 48 hours. He was at the Naval Hospital in San Diego and then transported to UCSD Thornton Medical Facility/Hospital. It's a beautiful facility and more importantly has an excellent reputation for medicine. He ended up having six open-heart surgeries -- 5 of them within 12 days -- all 6 to 9.5 hours long. He was in an induced coma for 21 days. His having survived was considered a miracle. His story was aired on NBC in San Diego. I am still grateful to this day to God and all the doctors and all those who prayed. My brother-in-law and my sister were able to send a message of gratitude to the family who lost their loved one.