Brett Mallam

On Friday, November 13, Brett stopped to help mom and her friend with her friend's car. He wasn't feeling well so he went up to mom's apartment. He was having chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness and profuse sweating. He laid down, but still wasn't feeling better after a little while, so mom called 911 and he was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. They were working on him in the Cardiac Cath Lab when his heart stopped. The cardiologist told me that they had to shock him a few times. Later we would find out that they had to shock him 27 times before they brought him to the ICU and overnight they had to shock him two more times. 


He has two heart pumps (called the Impella; you can look them up on YouTube, if you are interested), one on the left and one on the right. He's heavily sedated and medically paralyzed to keep him still. They had to cool his body way down to minimize brain damage that can occur from the numerous artificial defibrillations and we aren't allowed to touch him because even the slightest touches can upset his heart rhythm. 


Overnight last night, he was pretty unstable and they kept losing his blood pressure. They tried numerous medications and adjusting his vent  and were finally able to stabilize him somewhat at about 6:30 in the morning. They were initially concerned about his kidneys because his urine output dropped to almost nothing, but today it has come back to normal and they aren't concerned as much anymore.  He has continued to  make small improvements throughout the day and is somewhat stable, but has a long way to go. 


He's only allowed one visitor per day. Mom and his girlfriend were given special permission to be able to both see him last night. Today his daughter, Paige, was able to see him and spend the day with him. Tomorrow, my brother, Mark, will be spending the day with him. No visitors other than family, at this time, due to COVID restrictions.