I am sitting in the ICU at Barnes-Jewish St. Peters hospital in St. Louis, MO. My brother Vince had a massive heart attack on Tuesday. God is always in control, He holds our hands and wraps in loving arms around us. It is truly a miracle that my brother is alive right now. We are very positive that he is going to come out of this. Right now we are waiting for him to wake up. They are supposed to start weaning him off the sedatives slowly today and see how he responds. He has opened his eyes twice now, which is a good sign, and has been making facial gestures when the nurse does something to him that he doesn't like. My mom, sister and my brother Nick are here. I'm going to kick my brother's butt when he wakes up. If he wanted a family reunion, he just should have said so!!!
So let me back up a little bit and start from the beginning. On Tuesday I am on my way to pick up Rayna from summer camp and I get a call from Babs, my sister-in-law, saying I need to call my mom and grandma right away that Vince was in the hospital. I could barely understand her. A nurse got on the phone and explained to me what was going on. My brother had collapsed after working outside and they were administrating CPR. At that point it was really touch and go as they couldn't get him stabilized and nobody knew what was going on. They were finally able to stabilize him and found out that he had a massive heart attack with his left descending aorta 90% blocked. This is the main artery that pumps the blood to your whole body. They were able to immediately get him into surgery to put the stint in. That they were able to do that so quickly is just one of the many miracles that have happened to my brother.
He came out of surgery and they put him in an induced coma so he can rest and heal. That is basically where we are at right now. We are waiting for him to wake up as they are now slowing reducing his sedatives.
God has truly been with my brother every step of the way. He placed all the right people in his path to come out of this and make a full recovery. Vince was working at a client's house staining the deck and Babs was helping him. They came inside to take a break and Vince was saying that he wasn't feeling well. The client's daughter and her boyfriend were also at the house at the time. Babs went to go get the paint brushes as Vince was worried about them drying out. That was when he collapsed. The daughter called 911 and the boyfriend immediately started CPR. It just so happened that this guy is training to be a paramedic. The ambulance arrived within 3 minutes. They worked on stabilizing him for 45 minutes at the house before they could get him in the ambulance. I believe that if God had not placed this people in my brother's path that day, he would not be with us today, fighting to come back to us.
Now that the stint is in, his heart is doing really good. All of his vital signs are good. His blood gases are good, his blood pressure is stable. His body is responding as it should be. He looks good, his color is good and a lot of the swelling in his arms and face has gone down. I am just glad I can be here. I flew out Tuesday night. I did get some sleep last night. I'm just trying to make sure Babs gets some rest.
Please continue to pray that God can give him the strength to wake up and come back to us. Pray for Babs and the kids, Madison and Brendon.
I will try and keep you updated.
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