It’s been a week since I got some of the most shocking news of my life. Our little family has been no stranger to hospitals, and while I haven’t shared much of both of our health journeys, the husband and I have each had life altering surgeries within the first 5 years of our marriage and prior to having Emma. For each of our experiences, we received a diagnosis, mentally and physically had time to prepare, and for the most part, despite how greatly the situations sucked, had a game plan and an end goal at least mostly in sight. My husband’s journey was far more difficult than mine as it covered several months of visits and was the scariest time to walk through with so many unknowns.
But to be honest, I have been spared so much grief in my life and have endured far less tragedies than most. I think that’s why Heather’s situation has been so drastically different. For so much of this journey so far, the unknowns have outweighed the certainties, and the abrupt nature of everything has done little to ease our nerves. Heather has been such a close friend, more like a sister, these past five years. And this Friday, Heather will undergo her second open heart surgery in two weeks, this time to insert an LVAD. I’m still in shock. But I’m also hopeful. And confident in His wisdom, healing, and comfort for her long journey ahead. If you’re the praying kind, join me in continue to lavish her and her husband in prayer throughout this is journey.
Last Wednesday, the 9th, I posted this to my Instagram but wanted to share it here as well with the updates from Facebook in one place and they’ve become jumbled in the comments from a timeline. I’ve also included the link to the Caring Bridge site.
This photo is almost 5 years old & is still one of my favorites of me & my dear friend Heather from the little red dress party in 2014 bringing awareness to heart disease in women through the American Heart Association. Her friendship is such a gift, & her life such a light to everyone she encounters, so tonight sweet insta family I ask for your prayers:
Heather collapsed suddenly last night & is now in the ICU due to the critical nature of her heart & the event. Please join me in fervently praying for her team of doctors, nurses, & specialists as they continue to monitor her. Pray specifically for her heart. For healing, recovery & strength. Pray for her husband.
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Initial update from Matt (her husband) on the 9th:
Heather flew to Atlanta at the beginning of the week on business. Last night, while at a team outing at a bowling alley, she suddenly collapsed and was taken to Piedmont Hospital. Her condition quickly deteriorated and she went into shock. She was taken to the cath lab, and eventually to surgery. There, she underwent an open heart procedure to remove malfunctioned aortic valve. As the valve suddenly malfunctioned — without warning — it caused a blockage from her aorta to her left coronary artery. Not a classic heart attack, but a heart attack by default. It was a freak occurrence. The surgeon had never seen anything quite like it.
Her aortic valve was removed and replaced, but while the right side of her heart was more or less pumping normally, the left side was not. As a result, she is on a bypass machine, and a ventilator.
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Matt created a Caring Bridge account here to document her journey: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/heatherhooper
All of the updates prior to that point from Facebook are below:
Update from Matt– 10:45am Jan 10 Good morning, everyone.
I’ll start with the good news: Heather is becoming more responsive. She is nodding to answer questions, trying to form some words with her mouth and furrowing her brow a bit. She and I have a secret “I love you” hand squeeze, and she gave it to me this morning. This is fantastic news.
I also had a full update from her medical team. The tough news (the only tough news I received) is that this is going to take a very long time. She will be in ICU for weeks. That was very hard to hear, obviously. It is a marathon. But all of her organ systems look good right now. Her blood pressure is a little improved. They are going to close her chest this afternoon, and then begin to try and wake her a little more. Her breathing tube could be removed as early as tomorrow. Progress will be very incremental. But everyone on the team was optimistic, much more so than yesterday. They all agree that she’s progressing and should continue to progress.
Things to pray for specifically: Chest closing goes well, no infection or clots, that blood pressure continues to improve, more lucidity, and that we can get her off this bypass machine ahead of schedule at some point. That latter one is probably going to take a long time.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your love and support. We are so blessed. I’ve got about 40 text conversations going right now, I’ve lost track of who I’m talking too from time to time. So, keep the prayers, patience and love coming. We feel it.
Update from Matt – 4:11 p.m. ET, Jan. 10: They are prepping the room to close her chest. The procedure is pretty simple, shouldn’t take more than an hour or so. Prayers that all goes well with that.
There’s a good possibility that her breathing tube could be removed tomorrow, and that would allow her to come out of sedation. After this morning, she was put back under sedation because she was beginning to fight that tube a bit. Vital signs look good presently.
It should be noted that Piedmont Hospital is probably the very best place she could be for her type of condition. No one does more ECMO than they do (among private hospitals).
I now have a better understanding of what happened before, during and after her surgery. For those of you know know Heather’s heart story, she was born with a congenital heart defect which was later diagnosed at aortic insufficiency. No one has really been able to get a really good look at how her aortic valve was constructed, but suffice it to say, it was a hot mess. Turns out, two leaflets were fused, and one had a redundant flap. That redundant flap is the cause of all this misery.
At some point while she was bowling and having fun with her co-workers, the aortic valve malfunctioned and that rogue flap of valve covered the opening from her aorta to her coronary artery feeding her left heart. When you have a heart attack, it’s usually a clot blocking a coronary artery. In this case, she had a blockage, but it was from a valve flap. The doctors here – in one of the best heart hospitals in Atlanta – have literally never seen this before. There’s no literature on anything like this.
When she got to the hospital, because something like this has apparently never happened before, no one knew what was going on. They took her to the cath lab to search for a clot or an aortic aneurysm. When they threaded the cath right through the coronary artery and they encountered no resistance from that valve flap, they didn’t know it was there. So the mystery lived on until they got her in surgery. When they opened her up, she arrested. She died, more or less. They physically massaged her heart while getting her hooked up to life support. That support is called ECMO, and that’s what Piedmont does better than any other private hospital in the nation.
The doctor found the valve and was stunned by what a hot mess it was. of course. He removed it and replaced it with a tissue valve. The right heart (where the electrical rhythm originates) responded well. The left heart did not. There has been a little more activity on that side today, which is good. We need more of that.
This is going to be a long process, folks. We’re measuring process very incrementally. But the movement is largely forward. There will be steps backward and forward. Everyone here is optimistic.
Update from Matt– 6:03 p.m. ET, Jan 10: Chest is closed. Doc says everything went according to plan. Left heart still barely responsive, Doc says it’s probably a matter of time. If it doesn’t respond, there are interventions that can be done. We’ll cross that bridge when and if.
Nothing but progress today. Neurologically, she’s good. That’s huge. Tomorrow, they are going try and wake her.
Update from Matt: UPDATE, 8:55 a.m. ET, Jan. 11 –
Good morning, friends. Right now, I’m waiting on rounds to begin so I can get a full update on where we are. Heather had some issues with her blood pressure overnight (it would go low when they moved her around or fiddled with her tubing). As a consequence, they increased her intake of Vasopressin, a medication that is chemically elevating her pressure). Doing so resets our timeline a bit – we might not have a breathing tube removal as soon as we would like. That might come tomorrow. However, they turned her about 30 minutes ago, and her pressure actually went up a bit – good news. The goal is to reduce the Vasopressin back to what she was getting earlier.
Everything else is as it was yesterday evening. They are still going to back off on her sedation and try and wake her a bit, like they did yesterday. Looking forward to that, for sure.
If you are looking for things to pray for specifically: 1. Let’s get her weaned off this BP medication and start to see her regulate the pressure on her own. 2. Let’s wake her up a bit and see some responses like we saw yesterday. 3. Let’s get her to a point where the breathing tube can come out. 4. Continued strengthening of the left heart.
I’m doing as well as I can considering the circumstances. I’m sleeping, eating and drinking coffee – all my normal things. Barring something unfortunate happening, I’m going to begin tomorrow morning with a run. You have all surrounded me with tremendous love and support and prayer, and that is sustaining. If I were in your shoes, I’d be thinking: “I wish I could do more.” Right now, you’re doing exactly what I need you to do.
Be encouraged and encouraging. There are going to be nights like last night, where the numbers don’t go exactly the way we want them to go. That’s OK. You and I both need to be ready for steps forward and backward. I worked at the American Heart Association for nearly seven years – I’ve seen stories of people coming out of much worse scenarios than this. To be 29 years-old is a huge advantage here.
Keep praying. Keep the faith. We’re going to get through this. I need y’all for the long haul. Marathon, remember.
Also, for the handful of you who know me scarily well and have offered to FedEx me books, I did manage to grab two books from my library before departing Dallas. One is Anne Lamott’s “Almost Everything” and the other is a biography of Fred Rogers called “The Good Neighbor.” I’m no dummy, I picked the right books. 😉
Love you all more than you know. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Update, 10 a.m. ET, Jan. 11 —
We have some good news from rounds. Breathing tube removal is still scheduled for today, perhaps by noon eastern. That will be an unpleasant few minutes for her, of course. But the payoff will be huge.
The plan today is to sit her upright on the side of her bed.
According to the doc, everything is still on track.
Add to your list of prayers: 1. Easy extubation, 2. Sitting on the side of the bed. If you would like to pray specifically for her surgical team, they are doctors Morris Brown, Brian Thomas, and Peter Barrett.
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