A James Story

 James is always one to live on the wild side--intentionally or unintentionally. His nieces and nephews frequently ask for a James Story because they are so plentiful, and he found an occasion here in Argintina to provide them with another one. 

Footage from a past James Story

A small bit of background: we received news while we were in Ushuaia that Susan's mother, whose health has been declining the past few years had passed away. Susan traveled to Utah to be with her family for the funeral as soon as we returned. Grant stayed here with us. 

The week that she was gone, James had scheduled to have a fairly common procedure done on his heart. He had been experiencing an arrythmia for a few years and since our health coverage here is pretty darn good, and Argentina has well trained (although underpaid) doctors we decided now would be a good time to have an ablation done. The ablation is done by inserting a tube into a major artery near the groin and going up to the heart. Once inside the heart, they burn tiny scars to block irregular electrical signals. 

Waiting for the ablation

They asked James to come in at 11:00am fasting, so he hadn't eaten anything since the night before. I dropped him off at the hospital and went home since I wouldn't be any help there. They left him in a room until 7pm when they finally started the procedure. James was worried that they had been working all day and were tired by this point so suggested they wait until another time when it wasn't so late. They assured him they work this late all the time and they were going to go ahead and continue. James asked to stay awake during the procedure (because he's wild like that). They entered the right ventricle and weren't able to accomplish what they wanted to so they decided to put James under and try his left ventricle.

When James woke up later that night he said he felt great. After a few hours though, he was in pretty bad shape. He had a lot of pain in his chest and his blood pressure was very low. At 4am I got a text from him asking me to send his dad over to give him a blessing. When Grant got there he said James looked pretty bad. He had no color, was sweating and uncomfortable enough he couldn't sleep. As the morning progressed they realized his heart was pumping blood into the pericardium where it was building up pressure around his heart. They began using syringes to remove the displaced blood, releiving the pressure every couple of hours. When they finally allowed him to eat and drink a little he vomitted it all up. I'm not sure why they waited so long, but I think it had to do with their equipment not working very well.  They finally realized that a hole had been burned all the way through his heart and it wasn't correcting itself. They decided it was time to transfer him to another hospital for open heart surgery.

James wants me to emphasize that after reviewing the events with medical professionals in the US, there is no evidence of poor medical care. Everything was managed correctly--it was just an extremely unlucky situation. When the open heart surgery was over, the doctor who perforated his heart was his first visitor. He knelt down next to James' hospital bed and apologized, saying that in 20 years of doing this work, this was the first time this had ever happened to one of his patients.

Arriving at the Hospital Italiano

This whole time I had been home with the kids, getting updates from Grant (Thank goodness he was here with us!!) He asked me to meet them at the Hospital Italiano downtown. I tried to time my arrival so I would get there when the ambulance did, but the paramedics decided en route that it was really an emergency and used the sirens to get to the hospital asap. I was told that by the time he arrived he was white and cold, and his heart was pumping very little blood. They immeadiately took him in for surgery where they opened his chest and removed another liter of blood from around his heart. They found the puncture spot, about half the size of a penny, in a difficult to reach place between his aorta and pulmonary vein and they sutured it using a patch that will stay there the rest of his life. We weren't able to visit him that night, but we talked to the surgeon and were assured that he was out of danger. The surgeons have since told us he had been close to "having the lights go out" and it was a real miracle he survived the surgery.

The three cardiothorasic surgeons

James had lost a total of 3 liters of blood. He stayed in the hospital for nine days with fevers, recuperating and regaining his strength. His blood pressure remained quite low for much of the time so finally they stopped all pain medication after four days. It was a struggle, but he muscled through it. Watching him recover from the physical and mental trauma was as difficult as it was instructional. It is remarkable how connected our minds and bodies are, that our mental health is just as much a part of recovery as the physical aspect. 

James' Uncle Lynn&Lisa and his daughter Eliza&Michael just happened to be visiting during all this. They were so amazing, flexible, helpful, and still  able to keep to the tightest travel itenerary I have ever witnessed. 

Grant was the only one who was able to visit James every single day. This is a picture of when they snuck out of the hospital to a cafe to have fruit salad.

James hadn't been able to see all of the kids for nearly two weeks and he asked for a special family dinner with Cafe Rio sweet pork salad. In reference to the Lord of the Rings movies the kids had been watching he stood and recited this by memory for them before we ate.

From the lowest dungeon to the highest peak I fought with the Balrog of Morgoth... Until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin upon the mountain side... Darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time... The stars wheeled overhead, and every day was as long as a life age of the earth... But it was not the end. I felt life in me again. I've been sent back until my task is done... Gandalf? Yes... that was what they used to call me. Gandalf the Gray. That was my name... *I* am Gandalf the White. And I come back to you now - at the turn of the tide.

Celebratory ice cream outing: Daddy is Home!

It has been almost two months now and James is doing much better. He's holding Ian and lifting things he shouldn't be. The packers are coming on Monday morning and we fly out of Buenos Aires Sunday the 2nd. It has been so wild going through this as a family, but we couldn't leave Argentia without something really crazy happening, could we?? 

James convinced the doctors to come to his birthday party :)

We are so grateful to the doctors and nurses (all of them) and for the attention and care they gave James. We are incredibly grateful to James's parents for being so inspired to come live with us so they could be here during this scary time and the long road of recovery. We're also grateful for our friends and helpers who allowed us space and time to be with James when we needed to be. Our families were praying for James from all over the world and his name was on many temple prayer rolls. We know the Lord had everything to do with the preservation of James' life, I can't go a day without thanking Him that we still have James with us.

While all of this was happening we continued to coordinate our return home. We decided to take a gap year in Utah before returning to Washington. We will be in Washington the first two weeks of July then head to Provo to be close to family. Next summer we'll most likely be going back to Duvall. Just continuing to keep life interesting....

We love you all and would love to see any of you wherever you are!