Sue Smith

On April 14th our Mom was admitted to Forsyth Memorial Hospital for what we believed would be a simple procedure, an angioplasty and place some stents in her left  pulmonary vein that was discovered to be 85% blocked. This vein provides the rich oxygen to the heart muscle to pump blood out of the heart to the rest of the body. During this procedure, which was expected  simple the probe, (or wire) that was used to explore her blocked vein broke and created now more complications. The vein had become calcified and stents could have never opened her vein to allow proper blood flow. Andy and Dad helped the doctor make the decision that she need to have heart surgery. While the risk where high, this was the only option. 

After surgery she was moved to an Intensive Care Unit where she had an intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) to help her heart pump blood. Additionally she was put on a lung ventilator and given high levels of oxygen.  For almost two weeks she had not been responsive to anyone's commands and laid in an unconsciousness state. This is our family's CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support, your prayers and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting as we will be updating this often.