Help Greg Recover After Massive Heart Attack

My name is Maddie and I'm starting this fundraiser on behalf of my family friend, Greg DeLange, who unexpectedly suffered a major heart attack in the dead of night on November 18, 2021. Greg had spent the day with a friend out of town and, despite having planned on driving home after 10:00 pm, was offered this friend's guest room for the night. It was in this guest room around midnight that Greg collapsed to the floor, incapacitated, and sent a single text to his friend: "help." Thankfully, the friend was still awake, and found him.

This friend's offer to have him spend the night very likely saved Greg's life.

Greg suffered what is commonly referred to as a "widowmaker" heart attack, which is an informal term for a heart attack that involves 100 percent blockage in the left anterior descending (LAD) artery. He was rushed to a hospital in Edmonds, WA, where he was placed under a medically-induced coma, placed on a ventilator, and given a feeding tube. Five stents were placed in Greg's heart to open up his arteries. When doctors declared him stable enough to move, he was transferred to Swedish Hospital on Cherry Hill in Seattle, where he was diagnosed with and treated for pneumonia, but Greg was unconscious for it all. He remained in a coma for 8 days and nights. After a pacemaker and an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) were placed, Greg was finally brought out of his coma and off of his ventilator. This is when he was told by his doctor, "I can't believe we got you back." But due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Greg spent only 3 days conscious in the hospital before being discharged and heading home on November 29.

Currently, Greg is re-learning all of the skills that we take for granted: speaking, walking, climbing stairs, showering, using his phone, and even posting updates on Facebook. Everything is new, again, and it's hard. It's made harder still by the fact that Greg is extremely sore from the chest compressions that saved his life almost two weeks ago.

With continuing rehabilitation, Greg's prognosis is good. But even with these lifestyle changes, doctors say he won't be back to himself, again, for a whole year.

Greg DeLange started DJ-ing at 18 years old, straight out of high school, pushing buttons in a DJ booth to the Overnight Show on KZZK 102.7. He then moved to station OK 95 while also pursuing a photography career at Dorian Studio. For 10 years, Greg captured family portraits, events, and senior photos for hundreds of local students. After that, he spent many years DJ-ing music from "the '80s, '90s, and today" on 98.3 The Key and raising his two boys, Alex and Dustin, as a single dad. His final role on the radio brought him back to where he started, channel 102.7, now called KORD.

For those that do not know Greg personally, he is a lifelong resident of the Tri-Cities and a pillar of this community. He has dedicated himself over the years to lending a hand to those in need and never asks for anything in return. Greg is generous to a fault; he would literally give you the shirt off his own back if you needed it. But now, Greg needs help, and he doesn't know how to ask for it. Asking for help is foreign to me, he says. I just don't do it. So, Greg's not asking. I am. Let's show up for him.

Despite a good prognosis, this event has forever changed Greg's life, and has already impacted him greatly -- both financially and emotionally. The financial stress is weighing heavily upon his mind. My goal is to help reduce the financial burden, and therefore stress, on Greg so that he is able to focus his energy on getting better. All funds generated by this fundraiser will go directly to Greg to pay for the costs associated with his hospital stays, treatments, and rehabilitation in addition to supplementing his income while he recovers.