Aid Antonio and His Family as He Recovers

On Wednesday night, Antonio Colon finished teaching a 6:30 Krav Maga class and went home. At home he fainted, woke up a half hour later, texted his wife, who came in and found him. They went to White Plains hospital, and he was transferred to Montefiore in the early hours of Thursday morning, He was wheeled into surgery at 4am to undergo emergency heart surgery to repair his torn aortic valve. Antonio had suffered an aortic dissection. This is something he most likely had since birth and it was just a matter of time before it happened. While heading into surgery, the thoracic surgeon told his wife that there was a 50/50 chance that he would survive. He was already dying as he was headed into surgery.

He is truly lucky to be alive.

Coming out of surgery was the first step. Since that time, Antonio has remained sedated and intubated. He currently has a fever and they are looking to see if they can find out if and where an infection may be. Hopefully they will be able to extubate him soon, but as of right now, he still needs it. He has a cardiac nurse sitting with him 24 hours a day.

Many people have asked how they can help. We have set up a gofundme to support Antonio, his wife, Vendula and their beloved daughter Emilia at this time. Vendula and Antonio met here years ago when she was taking Krav Maga. She was an au pair from the Czech Republic and after going through the immigration hurdles was finally able to move here a little over a year ago. This is particularly difficult for her, as she does not have any family or support system (besides us!) here and is trying to balance being a mother to their 18month old and being beside Antonio in the hospital. It is our hope that this gofundme account can help support her in any way that she needs, including medical bills that will be piling up soon, childcare, groceries, or any other things that might come up.

Thank you very much for your support during this difficult time. If you know Antonio, you know he is stubborn and he is a fighter. Both qualities are helping to keep him alive and we are so grateful that he is still with us. It is going to be a long road to recovery and he is not out of the woods. We will provide updates as they come in.