02/24/2024
My Dad, Gino, was not feeling good and woke up from his sleep with chest pains and shortness of breath so he went to the Urgent Care where the nurses called an ambulance from the parking lot. He was rushed to the emergency room where the doctors confirmed that he had a heart attack. He was given medicine and reacted to it poorly, his blood pressure was dropping fast.. thankfully he was able to get stabilized quickly. The doctors said he would need a procedure to put stents in to prevent him from having additional heart attacks. After they had it scheduled and they viewed his arteries, they determined it would not work and he would need open heart surgery. They will have to open his chest and repair it with donor arteries from his arm. His surgery will be on Monday 2/26 and is expected to be in the hospital for another week. The surgery will put him out of work for at least 3 months. Unfortunately he was only working part time and is mostly self employed, and in the state of Wisconsin you only get "short term disability" through employers. There is no state program like we have in California. His chest and arm will be cut open and during the recovery time he will not be able to lift more than a few pounds and cannot do any strenuous activity (sorry dad, no golf!) ... We want to make sure his living expenses such a rent and insurances are covered during his healing period. We estimate that anywhere from 3,000-5,000 should be able to cover the mortgage on the house and should be able to help with any out of pocket expenses for his surgery or anything else that comes out of this. My dad has always the most funny and generous person and is always willing to lend a helping hand, it's unfortunate that life can come out this way and we just want to make sure he has the extra help, as the doctors said if he doesn't take it easy after the surgery he will damage the work done and it will not last.
We are so devastated that this has happened but are hopeful for a positive outcome.
We appreciate any and all donations and all the prayers and positive thoughts we have received from our family and friends.
thank you so much for reading and for any donations or shares of this article.
My Dad, Gino, was not feeling good and woke up from his sleep with ch… lindsay rivara needs your support for Gino Rivaras living expenses - Open Heart Surgery