It was just before dawn on Wednesday, April 3, 2002, when I received a phone call from Angela’s nurse. “She had a bad night ~ you might want to come right over.” Angela had surgery exactly four weeks ago today. The surgery was supposed to be successful. There was an 85% success rate ~ the odds were definitely in her favor. Comparatively, the odds to beat the cancer were only 50-65%, and Angela survived that, without relapse!

Angela had been in the hospital for the past 15 months waiting for a new heart. She was attached to a machine called a Thoratec. This machinery had been assisting Angela’s heart for 12 months. A Thoratec is a left ventricular assist device or LVAD (sometimes also referred to as “VAD”). The VAD was keeping Angela alive until a life-saving organ arrived.

The doctors had not selected Angela to receive any of the four hearts that had become available to her during the 14 months she was in the hospital, despite the fact that she was at the top of the list, on a life-saving device. Although the VAD had kept Angela alive, there could be devastating side effects; one of which, if kept on the device too long, could lead to the development of antibodies. Angela had in fact developed antibodies to the LVAD, making her nontransplantable. However, we were presented with a glimmer of hope … she could have surgery. If she opted to have this surgery, she could get out of the hospital and continue to wait for a heart.

The surgery was to switch VADs