My Uncle Walt Mitchell has been in a Cleveland Hospital for complications related to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. His Mom died from this when she was about his age. His brother and son also have this condition. More background info can be found at Update on My Uncle Walt – Prayer request. He was recently placed on a mechanical heart.

I got this update from my Mom, his sister, a couple days ago:

Ken just called. Walt had to have another surgery today. Apparently he had a lot of fluid building up in his chest again.

When they opened him up they discovered he has some kind of fungus growing. This is supposed to be the worst side effect of the artificial heart. They aren’t sure they are going to be able treat the fungus effectively. One doc has hopes and others don’t.

As long as he has the fungus, he won’t be put back on the list for a donor heart. If he can’t get rid of the fungus, he will be doomed to live out what is left of his life attached to the artificial heart, and eventually the other organs will be compromised by the fungus.

Ken is going to ask him tomorrow in a discreet way if that is the case what would his Dad want.

From the sibling viewpoint after we went through what we did with Mom, I told him we would not want him to suffer or just waste away or be in pain.

Ken put what life has been like for Walt the last few months in perspective. He said, “For the last 3 1/2 months my Dad hasn’t peed in a toilet, taken a shower, washed his own hair, ate a meal at a table, smelled fresh air, or felt the sunshine. When he went into the hospital it was summer; now it’s fall.”

Anyone who sent him a card – Ken wanted those to know they meant a lot to Walt and did cheer him up.

I told Ken when he is out of ICU and back in a regular room, to let me know his new room #, and we can continue to send cards.

Please keep up the prayers. If Walt ever needed them he needs them now.

I don’t want to think that God brought him this far, and he won’t leave the hospital with a new heart; yet I know it’s all in His hands.

Thank you for your continued prayers.

Related tags: journey+inside+my+mind journeyinsidemymind jimm daniel+johnson+jr hypertrophic+cardiomyopathy mechanical+heart artificial+heart

It’s been a little while since I shared updates about my Uncle Walt Mitchell, who for the past month or so has been in a Cleveland hospital for serious complications related to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (illustration of normal heart vs heart with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy). Below is the text of recent emails my Mom sent out with updates she received from my cousin.

The first one is from September 25, 2007:

Ken just called. Walt is going back in for surgery tommorow. He has fluid building up around the artificial device they have to drain. His blood pressure is low, his white blood cell count is high, and he has a fever. His kidney output has decreased again.

Ken said the surgeon said they think he may have something called cardiac capanoid (not sure I’m spelling it right). I don’t know what it is or what is done if you have it. Before he could say much more about it he got a call and had to go.

Ken said he just doesn’t have a good feeling about this. He is really scared for his Dad. This is the first time he has ever sounded less than upbeat about his Dad’s condition so I am concerned.

He said something really nice about his Dad. He said his Dad is his hero for all he has gone through and has never felt sorry for himself and given the best fight he could. Makes me proud of my brother too and I know he has what I’ve always called “the Mitchell determination”.

Continue to pray and when I hear more I will let all of you know.

This update came in just last night (September 26, 2007):

Ken just called. Walt is out of surgery. The surgery took about 3 1/2 hrs.

He had about a litre of blood pooled behind his artificial heart, and they found the source of bleeding and tied it off. Ken said he was already out of recovery, back in his room and tubes removed but was still asleep.

Keep the prayes going, it looks like they are working.

If things continue to do well for him, he may have the transplant within 2 months.

Love,

Margie

PS- I talked to [my oldest sister] Pat and she had talked to [our sister] Mary, so Pat updated me on [Mary's husband,] Uncle Dave. Dave had surgery last week, and he is healing.

This has been going on with him for some time now, and it was important this was successful, because if not, it would have affected his quality of life for his future.

Let’s hope he continues to do well and life gets back to normal for him.

Amen. Thank you so much for keeping my family in your thoughts and prayers. As you can see, it’s helping.

In a related e-mail from this past Sunday, my Mom asked if I could help start a Mitchell family blog, as a way for all of us to provide updates on stuff. I’m looking into that as well as setting up a private call for everyone over at TalkShoe.com.

Related tags: journey+inside+my+mind journeyinsidemymind jimm hypertrophic+cardiomyopathy