My brother, four and one-half years my junior sits in Barnes Jewish Hospital awaiting heart surgery. Twenty- some years ago, he had a heart attack, which required open-heart by-pass surgery. Through the years he has had numerous heart events and attacks requiring the placement of eleven stents.
His heart no longer has the pump-power to sustain his body. A few days ago, his liver and kidneys began to fail. At this moment, he is attached to an external heart pump. The proposed surgery is the insertion of a 'left ventricular assisting device'. This would require opening the chest and placing a 'pump' at the lower heart lobe. A 'feed' wire would come from the device out from the abdomen and attach to a battery-pack wore externally. Yes, it is the surgery performed on former vice-president, Dick Chaney.
I need not suggest the risky nature of this surgery. What I need is to ask each of you to lift my brother's name (Tom) in prayer. I wish for his comfort and distance from obvious anxiety. Sure, I want another day and another moment at a Cardinals baseball game with him. I do understand that before he was a brother, husband, father of three, grandfather of eleven and a great-grandfather, he WAS and remains a child of God.
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