How's Tom doing? By Valerie Schooley (
http://www.caringbridge.org/profile/983130) — 6 hours ago
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http://www.caringbridge.org/assets/ugc/30/u/f/56a55394a689b4553eb0bf7e.jpg)
Friends and family,
I'm setting up this site because as much as I'd like to answer the question "How's Tom doing?" personally, it won't be possible in the next few days and weeks. For those of you who don't know, here's what happened.
Tom and I left for Puerto Vallarta with Stephen and Amanda last Monday, January 18, with the intention of spending two weeks there and then going on to our usual winter abode in San Miguel de Allende for February and March.
Tom was diagnosed with a bladder infection right before we left and was taking antibiotics, but they weren't giving him any relief so we went into the emergency room of a small hospital near our condo. They admitted him in order to give him IV antibiotics. At that point we assumed he would be fixed up and on his way in a day or two.
Early Thursday morning, while still in the hospital, Tom suffered a heart attack. A cardiologist examined him and we decided to move him to a bigger hospital to do an angiogram and, if warranted, put in a stent. lt turned out that he needs much more than a stent, and they advised triple bypass surgery as soon as possible.
Luckily we had purchased Evacuation insurance a few days before we left. The incredibly efficient insurance company, Medex, went immediately to work coordinating the doctors in Mexico, Red Wing and Rochester with the air ambulance company. We flew home early Friday morning with a doctor, nurse and paramedic, landing at the Mayo Clinic where a team was waiting to evaluate his condition. He's now stable and healthy enough to undergo the triple bypass there tomorrow. As you can see by the picture he's in good spirits and getting the best care possible by the Mayo staff.
That's the short version - I just want to get this much information out for the people I haven't had a chance to contact. I'll plan to update this as we get information. If you like, you can leave notes here in the guestbook for him and I'll be sure he gets your messages. More later.....Valerie
