Carr Family

11/26/13 Update - Casey was taken by ambulance to the hospital on Monday November 11th.  I knew something was wrong despite all of the doctors and nurses telling us he was ok.  They did a stress test and found that he had decreased profusion to part of his heart.  Once his INR was low enough, they did a cath and lo and behold, his stents were again 90% blocked off with scar tissue.  The cardiologists ballooned it and placed yet another stent (his 4th now)  and they feel that this will "settle down eventually but could happened 2, 3, 4 more times before it does"  This answer is unacceptable to both Casey and I and our family physician. With the stent being 90% blocked, he was at a risk of heart attack any minute.  We cannot live like this, hoping that we catch it before he has a heart attack or God forbid, goes into cardiac arrest again.  Our family physician is sending him to either Hershey Med or UPenn in Philly to figure this out and from the doctors that we have talked to, it sounds like he needs open heart surgery to correct this problem.  As of right now, Casey is at too much of a risk to work, and is off indefinitely and if he needs open heart surgery, he will be off for months for recovery.  If you can find it in your heart to help us through this financially, we appreciate it more than you know.  Thank you!

Hi everyone, thanks for reading our story!  I am Bree, a 30 year old mother of 2, an almost 5 year old little girl named Kiernan and a 2 1/2 year old little man named Liam.  My husband (and Kiernan and Liam's Daddy ) is 31 years old.  He is a wonderful husband, an amazing father, and a wonderful provider.  Unfortunately, Casey was born with a congential heart defect which caused him to have to have open heart surgery to have an artificial valve replacement at the age of 21.  He was on daily medication for this and all was well for 10 years.  He works at Harley Davidson and works anywhere from 40-60 hours per week to provide for our family. 

This past Tuesday, June 25th, 2013, while helping decorate our daughter's new room, he started to have chest pains.  Not thinking the worst, but still as both of us are EMT's knowing that chest pain is nothing to play around with, we called 911.  Casey was taken by ambulance to York Hospital.  As the ambulance was pulling in, Casey's heart stopped.  They shocked him once, performed CPR for 2 minutes, then shocked him again and brought him back.  He was whisked to heart cath where it was discovered a clot had formed on his artificial valve and it had come off and completely blocked one of his coronary arteries, causing a heart attack. 

We are so grateful to the ambulance crew that saved his life and so thankful that he pulled through.  The recovery for this heart attack is going to take at least 4 weeks, during which time, despite his great desire to do so, Casey will not be able to provide for us.  Harley does not offer any kind of sick pay or paid time off so his recovery will be completely unpaid.  I was hesitant to set this up, but I know that as soon as Casey is back on his feet, we will be paying it forward.  I thank everyone and anyone who took the time to read this and if you contribute, please know we all 4 appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts.

6/28/2013 Update:  Casey and I are moved to tears by the outpouring of love and giving from everyone. I am absolutely speechless at how amazing all of you are.  I wish there were stronger words than thank you to use for everyone who has shared and contributed.  You are amazing people and we are so blessed to have you touch our lives.  A big thank you to the little man who donated his $5 allowance to our family.  Mom and Dad of that little man, you are doing a great job raising an amazing, wonderful and caring little person. To each and every one of you, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.