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An Unexpected Blessing Molly's story begins when she gave birth to Jack on February 3rd. It was an awesome, miraculous uncomplicated birth which followed a routine pregnancy. After Molly had used her six weeks sick leave time (PTO) she started back to work at Children's. On her second day back she became short of breath and had trouble walking from the X-ray room out to the waiting room to pick up a patient. She called Peter and he took her to the emergency room. It is at this time that Molly's fate was cast. What the doctor's determined to be a gall bladder
attack was actually a heart condition called
Molly went into congestive heart failure. Her vitals crashed and her heart was greatly and sadly damaged. In baby Jack's seventh week of life, Molly was told that she could no longer breast feed, that she could never have another child, that she needed a pacemaker/defibrillator to support her heart and that she had a fifty-fifty chance of dying from this illness. She remained in the hospital until she was strong enough to leave. Molly was now a twenty-five year old congestive heart patient with a device in her chest to support her heart. A week later Molly had a pulmonary embolus and she remained in the hospital for two weeks. This was strike two and the heart was damaged even more. She was told that she might need a new heart. She again left the hospital and tried to regain some strength when her body functions became compromised. Molly was overloaded with fluids in the hospital and her heart couldn't handle the excess. This was all her heart could take. At this point, Molly's heart was functioning 'considerably below ten percent'. On June 8th Molly was placed at the top of the transplant list at the Ohio State University Ross Heart Hospital. That night, Peter and Molly shared a quiet evening in her room. On June 10th, Molly was surprised with a new heart an "unexpected blessing". The family is experiencing huge expenses and the immunosuppressant drugs are expensive. A Molly Ann Deeter-Pontius Benefit Account #747368421 has been set-up to help the family with the expenses (the account can be accessed at any Chase Bank, anywhere in the country). "A New Heart Saves Mother Heart-Rending Journey: Rare Heart Condition Puts Mom in Danger" by Beth L. Jokinen, The Lima News, Ohio (June 25, 2007) To an update to
Molly, Jack, and Peter's Situation,
May 24, 2008 Group Launches First Internet Registry Of Women With Pregnancy-Related Heart Failure - Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the condition is a rare form of heart failure that affects pregnant women in the last month of pregnancy. The cause of the condition "remains a mystery," and physicians do not know how often it occurs. Pregnant women with the condition "often go to the doctor saying, 'I'm short of breath, my legs are swollen and I can only walk a block or two,'" and are thus ignored because these are similar complaints physicians routinely hear from pregnant women. The most recent studies of the condition suggest that 30% remain in chronic heart failure and that about 10% develop severe heart failure, require a heart transplant or die. A Mothers Heart:
http://www.amothersheart.org/PRiCELESS.htm Other Web Sites Pregnancy and Birth - MidWife
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