It’s incredible to think about what some people go through and how they manage to survive the pain of losing loved ones. In a personal essay on the website Love What Matters, a young mother shared the story of having to rush her husband to the hospital after a sudden heart scare.
Angela Menci got a call from her husband Gare in the middle of the day while he was at work. The 39-year-old dentist had been performing a root canal and just felt “off.” Thinking he may be having a heart attack, he asked his wife to come pick him up from his practice and take him to the hospital!
Angela ran to a neighbor’s house with their newborn and toddler to see if they could watch them, but no one answered. She raced to assist her husband after getting the kids into the car. Angela had a friend come to pick up the children and keep them away from the drama that was about to begin once they were at the hospital and it became evident that it wasn’t a fluke. The doctor eventually emerged from the ER after hours of waiting to give her an update on Gare. “He has a tear in his aorta,” she explained. It’s a total disaster.”
“My husband was conscious, I had to deliver the news to him. His job now was to remain calm and keep his heart rate from elevating. The more it pumped, the more he bled out. He couldn’t freak out but that didn’t stop me from falling to the floor and crying as hospital personnel walked around me,” the woman said.
Then, Gare was transferred with an helicopter to a hospital in Portland. There was their only hope. But the things didn’t look good, so the couple tried to make a video of Gare for the children. Yet, he couldn’t bear to say goodbye.
“It was determined he would need to be life-flighted to a hospital in Portland, more equipped for the severity of his surgery. Sam, the life-flight nurse grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me straight in the eyes. He told me that his job was to keep Gary alive. He told me he was great at his job and he had confidence in delivering my husband safely to skilled surgeons that would fix him. He took my number and promised to update me from the flight,” Angela said.
Minutes later, the surgeon came out to tell her that Gare had coded after they administered the anesthesia and his aorta tore completely. He went 5 minutes without oxygen. Even if he lived, there was a good chance that he would wake up with severe cognitive and/or physical disabilities.
Angela’s mother arrived after more agonizing waiting, but with even more shocking news. Angela’s children arrived at the hospital to say goodbye to their father and she spent a few final moments with her husband.
Angela not only lost her sister and husband within days of each other, but she also had to spend her infant son’s first birthday at the funeral home arranging for her husband’s burial. It’s an unimaginable scenario. Angela and her children now live with her sister and brother-in-law, who converted their basement into an apartment for them.