Help Ken Hope's Road to Recovery

Dear Friends,

In mid March, our brother, father, uncle, and friend, Ken Hope had a heart attack. He went to the ER at UVM to have 3 stents put in. But after a couple of days, it became evident that his heart was still not happy. Actually, it was only working enough to keep his internal organs alive. His left ventricle, which is the part of the heart responsible for most of the pumping, was heavily damaged and not responding favorably to the drugs being administered. One of his doctors had an affiliation with Tufts Medical Center in Boston, which offers advanced heart therapies. On Sunday, March 17th, they made a quick decision to transport him to Boston. Upon arrival, his condition was grave. After tons of diagnostic tests, he was intubated and put on ECMO, which is an advanced therapy that involves a machine that takes over the function of the heart and lungs. The surgeons implanted a pacemaker and ventricular assist pump. His heart was working at only 15%. These machines did the work of Ken’s heart and lungs for about 3 weeks. He could not breathe on his own until they slowly started to reduce the sedation and woke him up. Ken needed a new heart. It was determined that he qualified as a candidate for a transplant, and as of April 16th, he was officially put on the transplant list. He was then gaining some strength and mentally preparing for the possibility of a heart becoming available for the transplant. April 28th arrives and miraculously, a heart becomes available. After a 15 hour surgery, Ken had a new heart! As of today, May 5th, Ken is doing very well. He just got moved out of the ICU, and may be leaving the hospital in 10 days or so if everything continues to go well. Then, the rehab begins.

Needless to say, that even with health insurance that he has through his job at Citizen Cider in Burlington, VT, his ongoing medical expenses for care and prescriptions are going to be staggering. He told me he took 13 pills this morning!

Ken hopes to be able to return to work, but it will be months before that is even possible. For these reasons, we are humbly asking for donations.

With much gratitude, Ken’s family and friends!