In loving memory of Luke Barnes

First of all I want to thank everyone on behalf of Belle, Luke and the family for the donations given on the previous go fund me. That money allowed Belle to be by Luke’s side for his final months, laughing with, loving on him and enjoying life together. No amount of words or thanks could ever truly portray how grateful we all are that they got that precious time together without having to worry about the financial burden.

For those of you who aren’t aware of their journey Luke was diagnosed with a heart condition 3 years ago and exactly 1 year before he passed he was put on the transplant list for the first time. In November 2022 he had deteriorated to the point where the transplant team no longer felt it was safe for him to be at home anymore and he was admitted full time to Papworth to await his new heart. He was put on dopamine to push his heart to work harder, however on the 8th of December his heart had become so weak that he was rushed into theatre to have a BiVAD fitted which is a mechanical pump for your heart. He suffered a cardiac arrest on the operating table that night and was so lucky to be where he was as there were able to get him onto bypass super quickly and take over keeping him alive.

Since then Luke remained in critical care taking each day as it came and fighting each hurdle with strength and incredible positivity. Making plans for the future with his wife and enjoying their time together in hospital, finding the joy wherever they could.

Unfortuntely in the early hours of Thursday the 16th March, Luke experienced a mechanical failure with his bivad. The pipe became detached which resulted in him losing his whole blood volume. The doctors and surgeons at Papworth managed to get him on ecmo which is a more advanced life support. This was a temporary measure to save his life but it caused catastrophic bleeding and he needed to once again have surgery to change his configuration. Once this was established and he was stable with blood products, the surgeons noticed the damage to his legs which were turning blue and needed to operate again to get the ECMO and BiVAD back into his chest rather than his groin. That night, he went to theatre and Belle was told to prepare for the worst as he might not be strong enough to get his heart started again. Luke pulled through the surgery and came out early hours of the morning, Belle got to be with him briefly at this time but the next few hours were crucial. Despite a few wobbles during the night, Luke was stable enough to be taken to CT at 11am Friday the 17th. This was going to determine what injuries had been sustained due to the lack of blood flow when the event happened. Belle was allowed to be with Luke after he returned from CT around 13:30 and anxiously waited the results. At around 16:30, Belle was sat down by the doctors and informed that Luke had suffered a catastrophic and irreversible brain injury, his brain was so swollen and there was no return for Luke unfortunately. He was brain dead and the only thing keeping him with us was the advance life support the team had him on. Belle then made the decision to respect Luke’s wishes as withdraw his treatment.

Surrounded by his Wife, his friends and his family, the team turned of his support and his medication and we spent Luke’s final 40/45 minutes whilst he slipped away from us, soaking him with love, singing to him, telling him the football scores.

At around 20:50 Luke passed away, in Belle’s arms.

Luke touched so many people with his story, and was loved immensely.

Now Belle has to deal with planning her husbands funeral and having not worked for months to be with him and living out of hotels 2 hours from home since December the money for this is simply not there. If anyone can spare anything to give Luke the send off he deserves we would be eternally thankful.