Robert Baumgarten

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On Sunday, April 23rd, dad suffered a heart attack and went into cardiac arrest.  Thankfully it had rained that day so he was home and not at the farm by himself.  Mom immediately called 911 and paramedics arrived and were able to resuscitate him and get him to the hospital.   Once we arrived at the hospital his heart was beating again but weak, and we did not know how long he was without oxygen to his brain.  The doctors informed us that our only option was to cool down his body for 24 hours, into a hypodermic coma, this would allow his body and brain time to heal.   He also needs triple bypass surgery to repair his heart. Once the 24 hours was up, they slowly warmed him back up and waited for him to wake up.  This was a long and excruciating process.  



Over the course of the next few days we had some highs and lows waiting to see if he would pass neurological tests and be able to get off his ventilator and breath on his own.  On Friday we were able to talk to him for the first time!  It was a very exciting moment for all of us!  He has recognized all of his family and grand kids, and of course first words were "get me out of here!" We did find out that he has a blood clot in his heart ventricle that would not allow for surgery.  He's been put on blood thinners to help control this issue, and our hope was for surgery once the blood clot cleared.


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