In a matter of minutes, our lives were changed forever.
9am on a Thursday morning, my business owning, fun-loving, hilarious, friendly, committed, strong, confident, brave, bold, can-do-anything 45 year old husband started having some chest pain. He called me to say he may need to see a doctor. I heard his friend say in the background, “Dude, you are pouring sweat!”
“Lee!! Can you hear me! That’s a heart attack! Randy’s having a heart attack! Lee, call 911! And get him some baby aspirin!”
7 minutes later, I arrived at his work, followed by the EMT team. An EKG revealed PAC’s (heart muscle contractions coming out of order). He was loaded onto a gurney, and then into the back of the ambulance, while I jumped in the front. Randy’s body jolted as he seized, vomited up some water he’d been drinking (he thought it was heart burn at first, and was trying to burp)…and then his heart stopped. It just stopped.
As the paramedics did chest compressions and attempted to establish an airway, we sped the 17 miles to the closest hospital, while I cried out to God, pleading incessantly, for Him to let me keep my husband.
I thought my heart would tear out of my chest. Not my Randy. Not him, not now. It’s too soon. We’re so young. We’re so happy. Our family. Our kids. I can’t tell my teenager that his dad died while he was at school. My daughter. She needs her daddy. He has to live. Father in Heaven, please, oh please. Please let me keep him.
I became very aware that Randy’s spirit was not in his body anymore. He was still close-by, but he was not alive. I’d never rehearsed it, and it didn’t come from a place of cortical thought, but like from a divine fountain, thoughts and words came into my mind, and out my mouth, as I began to communicate with Randy who was hovering between heaven and earth, things too sacred to share here.
I’m sure the ambulance driver wished he could pull over and put me out on the curb! Between my audible cries to God, I was pleading with the paramedics administering CPR in the back: “Please don’t quit! He’s only 45. He’s my everything. Don’t stop! We have 4 children. The second one only listens to his dad. You have to save him! Are you tired? You’re getting tired. You should switch. My husband is my teenager’s best friend. We can’t go on without him. Oh, don’t stop!” All the way to town.
I do recall the driver instructing me as we approached the ambulance bay at the hospital. Something about doing whatever I was told and staying out of the way. Something about needing to call security. What?! Security?! I’ve never been threatened with that in my life! I wasn’t hysterical, or unruly or out of control…
I found myself being escorted to a lonely “family room” for a brief moment, before I was retrieved and escorted to the trauma bay. I waited along the wall in the back and watched over the shoulders of some 30+ doctors, nurses, techs and interns who hovered over Randy’s lifeless body. The manual chest compressions were replaced by a LUCAS, and they continued bagging (administering oxygen to the lungs) for what seemed like hours to me.
There was a point at which i turned to someone standing near me and asked, “At what point do they call it, and tell me there’s nothing more they can do?” He quickly replied, “Oh, no! He’s young and strong and healthy. We’re going to do everything in our power to save him!” Very soon after, they performed the procedure to implant the ECMO (essentially, an artificial heart and lung) right there in the emergency room, while still doing CPR. I was told that the ECMO had bought him DAYS for his heart to recover function. That machine is a miracle, guys. Inspired by God.
Randy was whisked off to the cardiac catheter lab where he received 3 stents (one in the left anterior descending, and 2 in the circumflex), and I was whisked off to that family room, now filled with my children, parents, and friends. We prayed, cried and prayed some more. I had the chance to tell my children that no matter the outcome, I would (and I hoped they would) praise God, and not turn away from him. By the time I saw Randy again, this time in ICU, his heart had begun beating on its own.
Heavily sedated, unconscious, and hooked to various machines to pump his blood and oxygenate it, breathe for him, and provide needed fluids, medicines, my Randy was still with us. I knew God had heard my cries. How many days, I didn’t know. But for today, God let me keep him.
**Its now January 2020, and we still have a long road of recovery to travel. Melissa is still full-time invested in Randy’s care. Visit the sponsorship page to find a simple way to assist our family in our continuing journey to get Randy back home.**
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