Help Alex Get Her Life Saving Heart Procedure

Hi, My name is Joy Rempel and my husband is Lowell. We are close friends with Alex and Luke and their little baby Annie. For anyone that knows Luke or Alex, you likely know that they recently received some hopeful and overwhelming news, after receiving multiple bouts of difficult news. After an open heart surgery in 2020 for an emergent valve replacement, an unplanned total knee replacement due to blood loss, and another open heart surgery to bypass a closed artery in 2021, she received results in April 2024 that she has another closed coronary artery. This is limiting her function and leaves her with chest pain and shortness of breath everyday. Alex and Luke adopted their daughter Annie in January 2024, who is now nearly seven months old, and although it has allowed for quality time, both of them have been unable to work for the past while because Annie requires child care and Alex cannot work as an Emergency doctor in her current state. Unfortunately the doctors in British Columbia and Canada have not been able to stent it open and Alex has been referred to the Canadian Heart Transplant team for planning if these events should continue without remedy.

Well, after a trip to the Mayo Clinic Arizona in June 2024, Alex & Luke were referred to a world renowned physician in Seattle, Washington, who believes that, under his care, there is a 90% chance of opening up the closed coronary artery that is causing Alex symptoms. This procedure is scheduled for August 16, 2024 in Seattle, Washington and although they are nervous for yet another complex procedure, they are so grateful to have a glimmer of hope that may allow them to avoid another open heart surgery and possible heart transplant.

The road to find, and get booked in with, Dr. Lombardi was a long one for them... and Alex has now seen cardiologists, cardiac surgeons and interventional cardiologists all over Western Canada... but ultimately, he is the one who performs complex heart procedures everyday, and is the most familiar with doing these successfully and safely. He was recommended to Alex specifically by all of the specialists she saw in Canada, as well as by the physicians at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

After searching for the past few months, it is unfortunate that there is currently not anyone who performs this procedure in Canada, to the level that Dr. Lombardi does. He ensures that the onsite surgical staff are very familiar with him and his procedures and will be available if need be for potential complications.

As the procedure is being completed in the USA, Alex & Luke have had the Canadian specialists apply for provincial health coverage/support, but have not heard back yet despite multiple attempts. They have been incredibly overwhelmed with trying to figure out how they will afford this procedure...knowing that it is not an option as they need this chance at Alex having her quality of life back and a future.

Currently, the estimated cost for the procedure in Seattle is $120,000 CAD and that does not include the travel or hospital stay. Their trip to the Mayo Clinic cost them about $50,000 CAD and unfortunately, at this point, the province of BC has refused to support them financially with this. The Canadian specialists are currently fighting the provincial funding rejection as the Mayo Clinic visit was extremely beneficial in providing answers and getting her the referral to Dr. Lombardi.

Alex came out of the Mayo trip having confirmation that she does indeed have a vascular disease, and they now know that the medications she was on were likely not controlling the disease or "putting out the fire". Since returning from the clinic, she has been taken off of multiple medications and was started one specifically directed at her condition. Alex was also seen by Genetics at the Mayo Clinic, and they are fairly confident that her condition is of genetic origin. Her DNA is still being assessed and they hope to have more guiding answers within the next few weeks.

While she was at the Arizona Mayo Clinic, Alex was seen by Cardiology, and they were able to get tests done that have not been available in Canada. These tests proved that she currently has only 50% of her heart receiving blood flow. The hopeful finding, is that at rest, her heart still works well, showing that the heart muscle is still viable if we can get proper blood flow back somehow (what the procedure in Seattle will aim to do).

Providing the Canadian physicians with this information after returning to Kelowna, changed their treatment plans, as they recognized that more medications were not going to improve things. This is when multiple consultations were made and everyone recognized that a procedure needs to happen - whether it be with catheter & stent, open bypass, or heart transplant.