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Anonymous

High Heart Rate and High Blood Pressure issues

My Brother-in-Law got his LVAD on November 30, 2017. After a grueling recovery, he got better and after 7 weeks in the hospital he was about to go home. But BAM! he got hit with the flu that is going around. Right away he was put into the CCU again, and his condition started to deteriorate rapidly with severe coughing and high fever. His Heart Rate went sky high, and his Blood Pressure also went off the charts. He was put on a ventilator to allow him to breath. Next thing that happened was that his abdomen became extended and hard as a rock. A surgeon was called in to evaluate him, and in her "expert opinion" she claimed that he had a hole somewhere in his intestines that was causing air to accumulate in his abdomen. Right away she wanted to do emergency surgery on him, telling us that he had only hours to live - but would likely bleed out on her table. She gave us a choice to cut him open, or go to "comfort care" (let him pass away). Thank goodness, his LVAD surgeon stepped in and said NO! He instructed everyone to wait 24 hours, and bombard him with antibiotics scheduling a CT scan for the next day. Long story short, a week later my Brother-in-Law was found to have a large amount of POOP in his bowels! No hole in his intestines, no air in his abdomen. He is now off the ventilator, however, his "MAPs" are erratic, and his alarms are going off constantly. Also, if all of this were not enough, he is on a dialysis because his transplanted kidney (5/2012) was overloaded with the LVAD surgery. My question; is it possible to come back after all of these setbacks? And what is the quality of life? Thanks for listening!!