From his wife's post:
"
Thank you to everyone for your prayers, texts, and calls! I feel so humbled and spoiled by the numerous ways people have encouraged us. Gary's surgery was a success! He is still in the operating room being closed back together. He should be back in ICU in a couple of hours. They will purposely keep him asleep until tomorrow. We met with the surgeon. The donor's heart is strong and healthy. There was a complication. When they restarted the heart, the surgeon found out that the aortic valve was faulty. They thoroughly check the donor's heart before transplant and in the decades of doing transplants, the surgeon told us this has never happened to him. He had to cut out the faulty aortic valve and sew in a cow valve...apparently, they keep a variety of animal valves in another nearby surgery room.(generally used for those who need just the aortic valve replaced). There was excessive blood loss during this procedure. *Thank you to all who donate blood* The surgeon told us he also started the surgery with an unconventional procedure. After reviewing Gary's past heart surgeries, he knew there would be an excessive amount of scar tissue. To have better access to Gary's native heart for removal, he drained all of the blood out of his chest, through his leg. This flattened Gary's chest making it easier to remove previously installed hardware (plates and wires) and the excess of old scar tissue, to make a nice clean pocket for the new heart to set in. -totally "out of the box" method but it worked well. The 4-6 hour surgery turned into a 12 hour surgery. Gary met the surgeon yesterday and told him he was not a bit nervous about the surgery. He told the surgeon that he was the most prayed-for surgeon, as people worldwide were praying for him, the surgeon, to have
wisdom and guidance from God. I believe your prayers made all the difference, as there were a few other complications that God directed the surgeon and gave him wisdom to resolve. I cannot thank you enough for praying! I will update as Gary makes progress. Please continue to pray for him as complications could still arise. Thank you!
. God is good ALL the time!"
"
Thank you to everyone for your prayers, texts, and calls! I feel so humbled and spoiled by the numerous ways people have encouraged us. Gary's surgery was a success! He is still in the operating room being closed back together. He should be back in ICU in a couple of hours. They will purposely keep him asleep until tomorrow. We met with the surgeon. The donor's heart is strong and healthy. There was a complication. When they restarted the heart, the surgeon found out that the aortic valve was faulty. They thoroughly check the donor's heart before transplant and in the decades of doing transplants, the surgeon told us this has never happened to him. He had to cut out the faulty aortic valve and sew in a cow valve...apparently, they keep a variety of animal valves in another nearby surgery room.(generally used for those who need just the aortic valve replaced). There was excessive blood loss during this procedure. *Thank you to all who donate blood* The surgeon told us he also started the surgery with an unconventional procedure. After reviewing Gary's past heart surgeries, he knew there would be an excessive amount of scar tissue. To have better access to Gary's native heart for removal, he drained all of the blood out of his chest, through his leg. This flattened Gary's chest making it easier to remove previously installed hardware (plates and wires) and the excess of old scar tissue, to make a nice clean pocket for the new heart to set in. -totally "out of the box" method but it worked well. The 4-6 hour surgery turned into a 12 hour surgery. Gary met the surgeon yesterday and told him he was not a bit nervous about the surgery. He told the surgeon that he was the most prayed-for surgeon, as people worldwide were praying for him, the surgeon, to have
wisdom and guidance from God. I believe your prayers made all the difference, as there were a few other complications that God directed the surgeon and gave him wisdom to resolve. I cannot thank you enough for praying! I will update as Gary makes progress. Please continue to pray for him as complications could still arise. Thank you!