(From Clarinda James, Jeremiah’s aunt)
June 25th 2021- October 14, 2023. 27 months and 19 days. 842 days. 120 weeks and 2 days. That is how long Jeremiah has been on the heart transplant list.
That is until the long awaited and much prayed for phone call on Friday, October 13th. A donor heart became available and once it was determined that it was a match to Jeremiah’s blood, Jeremiah and Arlene drove to the hospital late Friday night. It’s simply amazing that they finally found him a match due to his antibodies being so high. The donor heart was a great match but there is one positive antibody that puts him at risk for rejection.
Saturday morning, Jeremiah headed to the OR to be prepped and we prayed the donor heart would be viable. Once the donor heart arrived and all was well with it, the long surgery began. 12 hours later, just before midnight, surgery was completed and Jeremiah HAD A NEW HEART! The surgery was more complicated than usual, as Jeremiah’s heart is more complicated than usual. His sternum was left open for a couple of days due to bleeding and swelling. Due to the one positive antibody in the donor’s heart, the plan is plasmapheresis (plasma exchange) to remove antibodies in his blood for 5-7 days.
On Monday, October 16, Jeremiah returned to the OR to have his open sternal incision closed. In addition, the surgeon decided Jeremiah needed another surgery to add a graft to his superior vena cava so there would not be such a stretch or chance of compression when the chest was closed. He also has a new catheter in the chest to be able to perform hemodialysis until his kidneys get back to normal function. Please pray for his kidneys to recover.
There have been a string of complications and setbacks and he has had some tough nights, but we are hopeful that Jeremiah’s condition is in the upswing. In addition to the kidneys having difficulty, his blood pressure has been unstable making it difficult to balance fluid overload. He lost a lot of blood after his second surgery on Monday so he needed blood transfusions and platelets. At 3:40 PM on Wednesday, October 18, Jeremiah’s ventilator was turned off!!! We expect that the new heart will take time to regain full function. The left side of the heart looks great. It is the right side of the heart that is struggling. Please pray for him to be free of complications and rejection.
We are grateful for the care he is receiving from the cardiac ICU team at Children’s Medical Center Dallas. We are beyond thankful and relieved for the answer to prayer of a new heart, but also extremely exhausted and can hardly believe this is real. What a gift he has been given by a complete stranger! It is not lost on us, that with someone’s great loss, Jeremiah has been given the gift of life and health.