By writer to www.10tv.com
Ed Layton had lived with a ventricular help system for almost 15 years. By October, he desperately wanted a brand new coronary heart and he received one simply in time for Thanksgiving.
WHITEHALL, Ohio — Pondering again to the second that modified the course of his life endlessly nonetheless brings tears to Ed Layton’s eyes. And rapidly.
“I used to be 53 and had a significant coronary heart assault, a widow-maker, they usually don’t know the way I survived it,” he mentioned.
He was working as a letter provider again then after spending years within the army. He was off work that day to be residence for brand spanking new carpet set up. And that’s when it hit.
“It was terrible,” his spouse Becky Layton mentioned. “It was onerous.”
Ed Layton was rushed to the hospital, the place he had surgical procedure to get a VAD, or ventricular help system, in any other case often known as a mechanical coronary heart pump. However, even then, he knew it wasn’t presupposed to final endlessly.
So he stored plugging alongside, regardless that his life had utterly modified. He immediately was sporting a vest always to carry all of the instruments to maintain him alive. There was a guidelines of issues he would wish even for a visit down the road. The VAD and its management on his life, and that of his household’s, was a relentless presence.
Nonetheless, Layton was merely grateful to be alive.
“My emotions was, don’t repair what ain’t broke,” he mentioned. “The pump was working simply superb, principally no issues, and it lasted.”
I did final, for almost 15 years. However, again in Could, issues took a flip. Layton received a VAD an infection. And immediately he was on the trail for a coronary heart transplant. He would spend the subsequent six months principally within the hospital.
“That was a fairly depressing time for me, and I perceive how lots of people really feel as a result of I used to be slowly going downhill,” he mentioned.
Issues reached a essential stage in October when he and his spouse confronted a scary second along with his VAD. An alarm that they had by no means heard earlier than began sounding on his machine, and he would find yourself within the hospital for 32 days, simply ready for that much-needed coronary heart.
The decision lastly got here on Nov. 2, and Layton received his new coronary heart on Nov. 3.
“It’s the worst surgical procedure I’ve ever been by way of, however but it’s one of the best surgical procedure I’ve been by way of,” he mentioned.
One of many surgeons who modified his life that day was Dr. Bryan Whitson, director of thoracic transplantation at OSU Wexner Medical Heart. Layton was the 601st affected person to obtain a coronary heart transplant at Wexner, a significant milestone.
“It actually takes a reasonably large village to do that, and I feel we do it very well,” Dr. Whitson mentioned.
He factors out that the Ross Coronary heart Hospital is a gem locally, combining a wealth of experience and companies in a single place.
“All of cardiac surgical procedure, what we’re in a position to do and be capable of present for sufferers is fairly distinctive,” he mentioned. “I feel transplantation is much more so as a result of sufferers are getting a second probability and a brand new reward of life. And it’s bittersweet. So the opposite a part of transplantation I all the time prefer to convey to individuals’s minds is that it is a very tragic occasion for any person else that turned out optimistic, and us simply honoring that donor and their household and what they’re going by way of, I feel, is one thing that these of us within the transplant area don’t take frivolously, and I feel Mr. Layton appreciates that as properly.”
Each Layton and his spouse most definitely do.
They each expressed gratitude for the donor and donor household and for with the ability to have a good time Thanksgiving at residence with what Layton describes as his third lease on life.
“I’ve all the time checked out it since I had my coronary heart assault, if my eyes open, it’s a lovely day,” he mentioned.
Ed Layton says he’s been signed as much as be an organ donor for 30 years now, and his spouse is on a mission now to take action as properly. For extra info on organ donation, go to the OSU Wexner website.
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