Please Help Andrew Through His Open Heart Surgery!

For 35 years, Andrew Peterson has been our little community’s

chiropractor. He has helped change, for the better, the lives of so many

of us who live in both chronic and acute pain. Andrew has been known to

unstintingly work through his lunch hours, frequently stay after

closing time, and has often opened his practice on weekends if someone

truly needed him.

Now Andrew desperately needs our help!

Andrew

requires open heart surgery, and it needs to happen very soon. He had

no idea that there was anything wrong with his heart; Andrew has normal

cholesterol and as a doctor dedicated to health and well-being, has

worked diligently to take care of himself through proper diet and

exercise. After experiencing unexplained and overwhelming fatigue,

along with chest pressure and shortness of breath, he decided to see a

cardiologist, especially since he is an adopted child and knows nothing

about his biological parents. His Coronary Calcium Scoring Test revealed

a score of 975, which is extremely high and indicated heavy

calcification of the aortic valve. This finding led to additional tests

which revealed a congenital aortic valve abnormality with severe

stenosis which needs replacing immediately.

Andrew could have a

fatal heart attack at any given moment with the lack of blood flow to

his heart! Learning that he was suddenly in a life or death situation

was devastating, and quite overwhelming, especially because he and his

family are still recovering financially and physically from a severe

mudslide/flood two and a half years ago which required extensive repairs

as well as all of his savings.

Another crisis so recently following the flood disaster has left Andrew and his family in an untenable situation.

Andrew

does not want early retirement; he loves his profession and his

patients and desperately wants to continue practicing several more years

here in the Pismo/Shell Beach area. This is his home. It is where he

settled down, a Vietnam era veteran with the 82nd Airborne Division, who

after serving, fulfilled his dream of becoming a chiropractic doctor.

In

this small, rural community, doctors accept the fact that their income

will never match those of more urban areas. The benefit of a tight-knit

community and slower pace, the satisfaction of really making a

difference in people’s lives, those patients whom you see while at the

post office, grocery store or anywhere else in such a small town is a

welcome trade-off for a caring doctor. Andrew doesn’t turn away the

needy; he treats rich and poor alike, with dignity and respect.

Please

help us who know the value of this special man, to help him in his time

of need. Please help Andrew save his practice and livelihood so he

won’t have to leave us.