Mark McAlpin Benefit

On October 31st Mark was at work, and his chest started to hurt, and was having a hard time breathing, and also as he said he had a heavy work load.  So he chose to drive himself to Maple Grove North Memorial Hospital from work which was in Uptown.  When he arrived at the hospital they rushed him right in and did an EKG instantly, and found that he was indeed having a heart attack.  They then did a chest X-ray, and found a lot of problems with his lungs as well as the heart attack.  Then at that time they told him they would be transferring him by ambulance to North Memorial in robbinsdale once they were able to get him stabilized, and the ambulance would arrive.  Once he got to Robbinsdale they brought him right to the ICU and before they did the angioplasty they told him he most likely would not have heart surgery because it happens to 1 in 100. Once they did the angioplasty they found that he had 99% blockage in his back left artery and some blockage in to smaller artery’s.  At that time they had him in ICU flat and calm, because the surgeon had already done 3 open heart surgeries, and wanted to be fresh when he did Marks surgery Saturday morning, and if he were to have any chest pains they could lose him instantly.  They had him in surgery Saturday morning at 6:00am and did a triple bypass open heart surgery and also found some emphysema in his lungs which is why he they had him lay flat and on a ventilator for 24 hours while very heavy sedated.  At this time he also had a very irregular heartbeat.  Sunday afternoon they took the ventilator out and he woke up.  His irregular heart rate did not improve so they have kept him in the hospital until Sunday November 8.   

Mark will be out of work for at least 3 months if not longer, he just recently started a new job where he has not been there long enough to get any type of benefits.  This also means he does not have any type of income at the time.  So we are asking for donations to help the family out with everyday needs, bills, and medical appointments.