On a Wing and a Prayer

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

This prayer request comes from a dear blog friend, Tanya. Her sister in law suffered a massive heart attack at 38 years old last week while 8 months pregnant with their fourth child. Please see their story below and keep their whole family in your prayers right now. Blessings, Angie

My sister in law Brooke, is 38 years old. 8 months pregnant with her fourth child and had a heart attack early this morning.I ask that you PLEASE pray for God to heal Brookes heart, for her unborn childs health, for her three other children Emily, Jack and Keely , for Brookes, husband Greg and all other family. Obviously, this is a complete shock to everyone and we can not believe why it happened. We are not questioning God’s plan only trying to understand it.

FULL STORY: Brooke woke up in the middle of the night and was complaining of a pain in her chest. At first, she thought it was just a typical symptom of pregnancy. However, after the pain persisted and became more intense, Brooke told her husband Greg that she needed to go to the hospital.As they waited for Greg’s father to arrive to stay with their other children the pain became worse. So bad, that Brooke was hitting her fist against the car. When they arrived at the hospital, they did tests and said she had a heart attack. She had an angiogram. After the angiogram the Dr’s said the plan was to keep her there. Have her heart heal for a couple weeks and then deliver the baby. Brooke continued to decline. It was then found out that the heart attack that Brooke had was a massive heart attack. The Dr’s could not figure out why Brooke continued to decline. It was then determined to transfer Brooke to University of Chicago.

Once Brooke arrived at University of Chicago they immediately started to figure out what was going on. Another angiogram was done. They found out that there was quite a bit of damage to Brooke’s heart. In fact, the Dr’s said that Brooke was very lucky to survive (Joe was more detailed when he told me the exact terms. I do not want to give out any false information. Something about functioning levels being 50 to 55% and Brooke’s heart was at 25 %.)! Another plan was put into action. They were going to do a c-section in the morning ( Friday) and then put Brooke on Bypass. She would then have surgery in the following couple of days. Brooke went into Labor Thursday evening. She was in a lot of pain. She could not have an epidural because of the blood thinners she was on for her heart. They had to wait for the Dr. At 12:30 a.m. the baby was born. 7 pounds. Greg said on his facebook “She is healthy, active and Beautiful.” The following morning ( Friday) Brookes health continued to decline. She was having difficult time breathing. It was determined that surgery could not wait a couple of days. Joe arrived before Brooke was taken into surgery and was able to spend some time with her and the rest of the family. Brooke was taken into surgery at around noon.

While Brooke was in surgery, the family spent some time with the baby. Joe said she is beautiful and was thrilled that got to hold her for a while.
The surgery lasted a while.The surgery went as well as could be expected. They did a double bypass. It was determined that Brooke Heart attack was caused by a dissected artery. It is a very rare risk in pregnancy for woman over 35. Her main artery feeding her left lobe was dissected or internally torn. Parts of her artery were blocking the blood flow to her heart.She will have permanent damage to her heart. It will take some time before the Dr.’s can determine how much damage. We are praying, and ask all of you to pray that the long term damage will be minimal. After surgery Joe stayed with Greg. He was there when Brooke woke up and said he did not want to leave until Brooke was given her morphine pump. He said that she was a lot of pain (obviously) but resting when he left. I will be going up to the hospital tomorrow with Joe after church. I am going to take my camera and try to take some pictures. Of course, I will update more as I get more information. I ask that you please continue to pray for Brooke, Greg, their children Emily, Jack and Keely, as well as the baby ( I am not allowed to really disclose the name yet—they may change it.). I also ask that you pray for the Dr’s and nurses caring for Brooke.

P.s. I have had several people ask me if Brooke’s heart attack was caused by a pre-existing heart problem. I do NOT know the answer to that. However, I can tell you that we were not aware of any heart problems before today. Now, did she have one and we did not know about it? I am sure that is possible and it will be looked into. For now though, it looks as if this was a pregnancy related incident. it.

Labels: Brooke, heart attack

posted by Angie Seaman at 5:07 PM

3 Comments:

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At October 21, 2009 at 11:51 AM, Anonymous said........

Any updates on her or tyler or any of them?? just wondering how everyone is doing!

At December 30, 2009 at 9:35 AM, Tanya said........

Thank you for all your prayers. Brooke is getting stronger. She is still not 100% and gets tired easily. Hard- when you have four children 10 and under. She is making progress though and that is great. All praise goes to God. The baby is doing great and getting big. We spent Christmas with the family and celebrated all the blessings around us.

At September 5, 2010 at 9:26 PM, Brooke said........

Thank you so much to everyone who prayed for me and my family! One year later, I have a defibrillator and feel about 99% back to "normal". My daughter, Macie, just celebrated her one year birthday and we are so grateful that God has blessed us with another year!

On another note, I did not have any history of heart problems before my heart attack - I have very low blood pressure and fabulous cholesterol levels. Just a very rare complication of being pregnant and over 35. :)

This blog is intended for those individuals requesting prayer for themselves or someone they know who needs prayer as well. Whether we know you personally or whether you are just a passer by on this blog, we would love to lift you or someone you know up in prayer.

Do you have a praise? If so, we'd love to hear about that and share Gods blessings as well. The bible states that for two or more people who come together in agreement of prayer will have their prayers answered. Therefore, this place is our place to lift one another up when prayer calls all while knowing that there are not just two but hundreds of us in agreement.

Want to keep things anonymous, we can do that too. Either post anonymously on the blog or feel free to shoot me an email at Angie@AngelicaGraceDesigns.com. No matter what, your prayers are safe with us should you not want names and full details released to the blog world.

In His Grip,
Angie Seaman