Gene's Story

In September, 2015. I had two (no pain) heart attacks, one while in the hospital. My cardiologist (he had put two stents in me some years earlier) told me that my left ventricle was in bad shape and that I might not live to the end of the year. This scared the hell out of me since I was my wife's caretaker. She had advanced Alzheimer's.

My Doc and I discussed options (I was too old for a heart transplant), and settled on the proven HeartMate II LVAD, if I met the underlying requirements. I did and had the implant on October 26th, 2015 at Sharps Hospital in San Diego, CA. I was 81 years old.

My eldest son became my and my wife's caretaker. We put her in a nursing home in November, because we couldn't give her the care she really needed, and I really was of little help. All of my family came out for Christmas, as my wife was going downhill rapidly. She died the day after Christmas. We had been married for over 59 years (High School Sweethearts). Christmas hasn't been the same for me, since.

I continued my surgery recovery and regained most of my strength, so my son went home with my sincere thanks for all he had done for us. I returned to doing almost everything I did prior to the LVAD implant (my golf game was still horrible). But, an incident about six weeks ago put me back in Sharps hospital to have a combination pacemaker and defibrillator implanted. I'm feeling good and will do some more traveling to be with out of state family. I also became a great granddad four months ago. That wouldn't have happened without my LVAD and the great support staff at Sharps Hospital. They are the best!!