Sam Johns Transplant Medical Fund
Donation protected
This rollercoaster ride began on February 24, 2015 when Sam Johns had a massive heart attack. He barely made it to the hospital and then they lost him three times before he began the true fight of his life. After spending several days in and out of surgery and on life support, two very grueling weeks later we thought the ride was over. He was able to come home and we celebrated. Just 15 hours later he went down again. He was rushed by ambulance back to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Lakewood, Colorado and surgery was scheduled later that day to have a defibrillator put in his chest. He was back on life support with his heart going into V-tack several times over several days. The doctors discovered that the kidneys and liver were in failure as well. They began dialysis 24/7 over several days and the decision was made that he would need to be transferred to University of Colorado Hospital Anschutz Medical Hospital in Aurora for any further treatment. A nerve block was done in his neck and he was ambulanced over to University. This was traumatic for our whole family as we left the comfort and support that we grew to love from the staff at St. Anthony’s. He turned 53 and spent his birthday in the Cardiac ICU. The words transplant and mechanical heart started to come up more and more but we still held on to the hope that the medication would work and make his heart stronger. Sam was finally able to come home, very weak, he had lost 80 pounds but we felt our prayers had been answered. We celebrated again. After a few short months we got the call that the medication was not working and Sam would need a heart transplant. He went back into the hospital for the “work up” to begin and after 3 weeks it was decided that he would need a heart and a kidney. He left the hospital as a Status 2 heart/kidney transplant candidate but only after a couple of weeks he went back into the hospital so that they could move him up on the list to Status 1. As of right now he is home on a 24/7 IV medication waiting for the call that a heart and kidney are available. He has to go into the Cardiac Center twice a week for appointments and we have nurses coming to the house to help him with meds and the port in his chest. We have all decided that this rollercoaster ride sucks and we want off. The ups and downs have taken their toll on us emotionally, physically and financially. Besides Sam not being able to work we just found out that we are losing our health insurance unless we can pay $800 a month to keep it. I have been working 3 jobs to try and stay afloat and it is beginning to take a toll. Our daughters Sarah (20) and Melissa (14) have been awesome but watching their dad go through this has been tough. Sarah has taken over doing his meds every week and helping me with errands while attending college full time and working part time. Melissa has maintained her GPA in her first year of high school, made the JV volleyball team and has been a huge help around the house. We have been so blessed with the care, staff and treatments that Sam has received at both St. Anthony’s and University Hospital. The nurses at St. Anthony’s got us through some very difficult times, they laughed with us, cried with us and supported us and for that we are truly grateful. This will be the first double transplant that University Hospital has ever done but we have faith in the doctors and staff. We also could not have gotten this far on this ride without our friends and family and community. We are so thankful for the continued support and have truly been humbled by this whole ordeal. It was a difficult decision to decide to do a GoFundMe but we know we need help. We thank you, we appreciate you and we promise to pay it forward one day. Thank you for your support, prayers and friendship. We love you! God Bless You!
Organizer
Lori Johns
Organizer
Lakewood, CO