Mark's Story
By Tracey Sandy.
This is our story. I was living in Tennessee and started chatting with Mark online in 1999. It was a random chat that used to be available using ICQ, the days before chat rooms and online dating. We were like the pioneers of internet romancing. Mark was living in England at the time. He flew over to meet me and I was totally smitten.
After flying back and forth for 3 years we decided to get married. In 2005 we welcomed our son Joshua into this world, although he arrived a little late in our life he was a blessing and is a joy . Then December 7th 2012 arrived and changed our lives forever. Mark called me from his car and told me that he loved me and our son Joshua and he wanted me to just hear those words before he died. He told me he was having the worst chest pains ever and I told him not to go anywhere. I called 911 and told them where they could find Mark. My friend (Jill Stout) and I beat Mark to the hospital.
Once inside they told me Mark was having a major heart attack. He was in so much pain you could tell by looking at his body language how much he wanted the pain to stop. The nurse gave me towels to try and keep him dry because he was sweating so much. They wanted to life flight him to a different hospital but the weather was bad. An ambulance drove him to a larger hospital 40 minutes away and I was told by the time I get there he would be in surgery getting a heart cath done. When I got to the second hospital it was around 6:15pm and shortly after arriving I hear CODE BLUE IN THE CATH LAB.
I knew in my heart it was Mark. A nurse came out and told me the doctors needed to see me in this little room. The little room that never has good news! A doctor came in and told me that my husbands heart had stopped and they were doing CPR and that he had aspirated into his lungs. After 5 minutes had passed they were able to get his heart started again. Mark was on life support and had a balloon pump in his heart and a few hours later a doctor told me that I needed to send Mark four hours away to the Cleveland Clinic.
He said that Mark’s left ventricle was severally damaged which is the big pumping chamber. I agreed with the doctor to send him and within hours, Cleveland sent a critical care ambulance to pick Mark up. I followed the ambulance to Cleveland. I didn’t have a change of clothes or toiletries or even a hairbrush. My 7 year old son was with me and we were stuck in a strange town 4 hours away from home and in a strange hospital. We never ever left Mark’s side. My family and friends would bring my son and I food and clothing but could only stay for a few hours. At first we were sleeping at the hospital in the waiting room and then a social worker set up a hotel stay for us.
My mother-in- law flew over from England to be with us. The icu unit is the scariest place in the world. All the beeping noises and the nurses and doctors and the code blue’s freaked me out. I suffer from depression and serious white coat syndrome. I had no other choice but to face my fears. I would rub lotion on Mark’s feet and legs and my little boy would help. He would sit and hold his daddy’s hand and just talk to him while his daddy just laid there on life support. I turned to social media so that anyone and everyone could pray for Mark. I uploaded pictures almost daily of Mark so people could follow his progress. We needed prayer warriors. After 11 days they started lowering the medicine that kept him asleep. I would be so hurt when the nurse would come in and ask him to squeeze her hand and he would but he would never do it for me. I just wanted him to wake up so I could see those eyes again.
He woke up right before Christmas. My little boy and I went out and bought a small plastic Christmas tree for his room. My son was worried that Santa wouldn’t find him at the hospital and I have the sweetest picture of my son looking out my husbands icu window looking for Santa. Mark would have a hard time breathing and they would put him on a bi pap machine for hours at a time. The machine and medicine made him see terrible images and gave me anxiety.
Finally, December 27 they were taking him out of ICU and they put him in a step down unit. They were talking about releasing us before the New Year. On December 28th they gave my husband Lisinopril which is good for the heart but lowers the blood pressure. Within a few hours Mark was back down in icu with extremely low blood pressure and chest pains. They gave IV fluid to him to build up his blood pressure and they had to put the balloon pump back in his heart.