I'm Melanie. I decided to try a blog to update my friends and family on my husband Scott's progress. He was born with a congenital heart defect called tricuspid atresia and had 3 open-heart surgeries as a child. Over 20 years after his last surgery Scott's heart began to fail. He was admitted to the hospital and put on the heart transplant list. After 2 and a half months in the hospital he had a heart transplant on January 29/09. The road has been tough. The new heart didn't work well at first and Scott nearly bled to death. The new heart needed a rest and eventually started to work after 4 days. Because of Scott's previous heart failure and the traumatic surgery Scott's kidneys failed. After over 4 months on dialysis his kidneys are finally in the recovery phase and dialysis is not needed. After a total of 6 months in hospital Scott finally came home. The recovery continues and Scott gets stronger as time goes by.
This picture is from a news article about the Berlin heart. The guy in the white lab coat is Dr.Rebeyka, Scott's surgeon. He is a pediatric surgeon who happens to know Scott's congenital condition best. The doctor in the back is Dr.Buchholz who specializes in the Berlin heart. He engineered the large VAD(ventricular assist device) that kept Scott alive for 4 days after the transplant. We see both of them most every day still.
Here are a few pictures of Scott doing normal stuff again. After church on Sunday we celebrated Thomas' 3rd birthday. This is when Thomas was opening presents. It's really nice to have Scott home. The kids love to snuggle with him!
Wow, I've never met you, and haven't seen pictures of Scott pre-transplant...but those are some pink lips!! :)
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