1st Journal Article-Waiting for a new Heart

Waiting for a new Heart

Bristol woman gets a new heart in Sept. 14 transplant at Shands

(Here is the article that was on the cover of The Liberty Journal)

Bristol woman gets a new heart in Sept. 14 transplant at Shands

September 24, 2010

by Teresa Eubanks, Journal Editor


When she was admitted to Shands to begin a regime of pre-transplant medication, 27-year-old Ramsey Brown of Bristol expected to remain in Gainesville for many weeks as she waited for a donor heart.

Just seven days later, she was being rushed into surgery.

“We got a phone call about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14,” said Ramsey’s mother, Teresa Hamlin of Wilma. “They apparently just got a notice that a match became available for her blood type and size.”

By 7 p.m., she was in the operating room. “They opened her chest up and got her old heart out,” her mother said. “We were actually sitting in the waiting room at 10:30 p.m. when Ramsey’s doctor and several others came rushing by us with a cooler on wheels. I realized that must be her heart.”

An hour later, Hamlin asked for an update on her daughter’s surgery and was told the new heart was in. “They said it would be a few hours before they closed her up to be sure everything was working ok,” her mother said.

“About 1:30 a.m. they finally called us and told us everything was good,” she said. By 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, Hamlin was able to see her daughter in the intensive care unit. Later that day, “The ventilator came out and she was breathing on her own.”
Earlier this week, Hamlin said, “She continues every day to get better and better. She is off all intravenous medications and taking everything orally. Everybody
says she’s doing extremely well.”

* * * * *
By Thursday morning, Ramsey was sitting up.

“They would only get me up in small increments,” Ramsey said. “It wasn’t until late Thursday afternoon that I started remembering people and staying alert.”
Although hooked up to several monitors, Ramsey has already started physical therapy. “They make use her arms, do squats, leg lifts and walk,” her mother said. “After they remove her last drainage tube, they will start letting her walk on a treadmill. It amazes me.”

This past Monday morning, Ramsey had a little time to herself, alone in her hospital room, when “It hit me,” she said. “I have a new heart. I’m very excited to see what this heart has for me.”

That day, she shared her joy on her Facebook page, telling the world, “I finally have a new strong heart! Thank you, God, and to my organ donor, for what is going to be a new and fabulous life!”

She doesn’t know who or where the heart came from, but hopes to find out by following hospital procedure, which includes submitting a letter to the donor family. If they agree, they will communicate with her. She may also meet her donor’s doctor. “The only thing we know is that one of the nurses told Ramsey the heart didn’t come from very far away,” her mother said.

After she is able to move to a hospital room, she will remain there for about a week. She will then have to stay in Gainesville for four to six weeks so doctors can do regular checks on her along with weekly biopsies of her heart to ensure its not being rejected.

She and her mother will stay at a friend’s home nine miles from the hospital. They will fill the time relaxing, walking, watching movies and plan a visit to a Butterfly Garden.

* * * * *
Only two weeks after her birth, Ramsey was diagnosed with a congestive heart defect. She wasn’t expected to live past
Ramsey is shown in the intensive care unit at Shands following last week’s heart transplant.

The age of five, but about that time she had a heart bypass following care by a doctor studying a rare type of cardiomyopathy that could be surgically improved.
That surgery allowed her to enjoy an active, healthy life. She was a cheerleader and marched with the Liberty County High School Band, playing flute. She also studied dance.

In August of 2006, a leak in a heart valve was discovered. By 2008, the left side of her heart was functioning at 25 percent. About a year ago, she was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension and congestive heart failure and the process began to get her on the list for a heart transplant.

* * * * *
Ramsey is looking forward to the day she can come home to Bristol and join her mother for the daily commute to their jobs in Tallahassee. Her future plans include finishing her last semester of college to get her bachelor’s degree in political science; then she plans to pursue her master’s. “But I kind of have taken a turn…I may want to go to nursing school,” she said. Her recent experiences “have opened my eyes,” she said. “I’ve very passionate about everything that’s happened to me. If I worked in cardiology, it would be so meaningful in my life.”

Once she’s back home, Ramsey plans to get involved in two causes: promoting blood and organ donation. “It’s so important for people to be blood donors as well as organ donors,” she said, explaining, “Even though the heart saved my life, the blood I donated made me feel so much better after the surgery.” She would like to help everyone know how important both can be.

Those who would like to communicate with Ramsey can find her on Facebook or write her at Ramsey Brown, 12905 NW Central Ave., Bristol, Florida. Her grandmother gets her mail to her regularly.

A fundraiser to help with her many expenses is planned this weekend in Bristol at Strickland’s Ace Hardware, where a chili cookoff will be held on Saturday, Oct. 2 during their Third Annual Hunting Expo

Stupid Tape

Yesterday was a week since I had the ICD put in…. what a road that was. It was a little worse then I thought it would be. I wasn’t thinking I was going to have so much pain and be so sore. The 1st couple of days were not fun at all, I am not going to sugar coat it and lie to you. I took my pain meds every 4 hours to be able to not cry. I felt okay Saturday and Hali and I went to Tallahassee, Red Lobster and to see the movie, Love Letters To Juliet. It must have been too much too soon. I felt bad the whole way home and ran fever all night and the next day. Of course I would have complications to something…. TAPE!!!! My skin is so sensitive that it irritated my skin when they pulled the tape off last Wednesday and as of Sunday I had a row of blisters under the incision and 1 on top of the incision. I went to the Doctor Monday and everything was fine. The blisters are healing and the scar….. Well, the scar looks GREAT! It healed beautifully and you can barely see it. (Picture to come soon). I’m using my left arm a little, not lifting high and not picking stuff up with it. I don’t know how I am going to not fully use my left arm for 7 more weeks :( This is going to be hard. I go back to Shands May 26 to meet with Dr. Pauly for a check-up and to schedule another heart cath in the neck (swan). This will show them how my pressures are and how the ICD is working. We are going to be starting fundraisers real soon. Please look for them and any help is welcomed and greatly appreciated. I couldn’t do any of this without yall!!! If anyone would like to buy a “Ramsey Heart Warrior” bracelet let Hali Barfield, Dawn Krow or Myself know. We just got 200 more bracelets in. I want to thank everyone for their prayers, support and love! I truly appreciate it.

ICD

I'm OK!!! It took them about 3 hrs to put the ICD in and it went well. I'm on Morphine cause I'm in a lot of pain. Change of plans once they got in there, they feel the ICD may improve my heart function & keep pressures down so this means the PICC line will come out Tomorrow and I will come home with the ICD in and see if it helps and I will come back in a month for a swan cath in neck. If it doesn't then PICC line back in and start on pre-transplant medicine and status bump up to a 1B. But, it is BEST to go as long as we can on my own heart...so if ICD works it will prolong transplant. This is a good thing and we are excited to see if it works. But, I'm still listed for a heart at a status 2 and will still need a new heart transplant. Thank everyone for your prayers and support. I love you all!!!!!

STATUS 1B Here I COME!!!

I got to Shands yesterday, Monday, May 10 at 12:00. They didn't have a room ready for me so I went to ADTU (Admissions Discharge Transmission Unit) it's basically holding rooms until they can get you your room ready. I was there from 1 til 6pm. Then I went for a EKG, CT Scan and a Chest X-ray. Then I was brought to my room on 5th floor, Cardio 54 in 5448A. This is a Cardio ICU but not like the one I usually go to on the 2nd floor. This is like the step down from that one (2nd floor is a more critical ICU). I met with Oksana this morning, who is my Transplant Coordinator, she went over the plans. Today they will come and put in a PICC line. A PICC line is a IV port that will go up under the skin on my left forearm. A PICC line goes in through a major artery not a vein. The reason they dont go through a vein is so they can leave it for months and the medicine would blow a vein. Then they will start the pre-transplant medicine through the PICC line. There is 2 different types a medicine they can try. They will monitor me closely for a couple days and make sure I don't throw arrhythmia's. I will then be bumped up on the UNOS list from a Status 2 to a Status 1B. This is GREAT!!! I'm waiting now for them to come do the PICC line!!!

My Story............

Hello, my name is Ramsey Layne Brown. I am 27 years old and this is my story:

I was born on November 29, 1982 in Atlanta, Georgia. My father was Loyal Grant Brown, Jr. and my mother Teresa Ramsey Hamlin. I weighed 6 lbs and 3 ounces and I seemed to be a healthy newborn. I scored a 9 on my apgar tests. When I was 2 weeks old, while my mother was feeding me, I started choking and turning blue. My parents rushed me to the hospital in Atlanta. They ran all kinds of tests on me including a spinal tap, thinking that I might have spinal meningitis. All of the tests were negative. I was on antibiotics through an IV for ten days. On Christmas Eve of 1982, they let my parents take me home. They never really said what was wrong with me. We went to my Mema’s house in Bristol on Christmas Day. My Mema was feeding me my bottle when I started turning blue again. My uncle at the time, Dr. Manuel Lopez, scooped me up and listened to my heart with his stethoscope. He immediately said that I had a heart problem. We went immediately to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. I was admitted and seen by Dr. Louis St. Petery, a pediatric cardiologist. They ran all kinds of tests on me, including an EKG and ultrasound. I was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a heart disease. After spending about 10 days in the hospital and coming near to death several times, I was sent to Shands Hospital in Gainesville for a second opinion. Their diagnosis was the same. My parents were told that cardiomyopathy is a heart disease that is inoperable and the best that they could do was to put me on medication and gave me a life expectancy of 5 years. We moved back to Tallahassee to be closer to family. At the age of 3, we moved to Daytona Beach for a few months and then my father was transferred with his job to Philadelphia, PA. We lived there for about 1 and 1/2 years. The doctors that I saw while in Pennsylvania were on the right track to treating me but then my father got transferred to Davie, Florida. I started seeing Dr. Dolores Tamer, a pediatric cardiologist at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. She had just been doing a study on a rare type of cardiomyopathy that could be surgically improved. I underwent bypass surgery on October 17, 1987, just a month before my 5th birthday. The surgery went well and after 10 days, I went home with my parents. I continued to do well on medication. My parents bought a house in Davie, Florida in 1988 and we lived there until 1994. While living in Davie, I was very active as a cheerleader and taking dance lessons. In November 1994, we moved back to Bristol, Florida, where my Mema and Papa lived. I started to school at Bristol Middle School. I was a cheerleader throughout the rest of my middle and high school years and was also very involved in band, playing a flute. I also worked as a waitress at the Apalachee Restaurant for many years. After high school graduation, I attended Tallahassee Community College and Florida State University. I am employed by Greenberg Traurig, a law firm in Tallahassee, Florida, where I am a legislative coordinator. In Tallahassee, under the care of cardiologist Frank Gredler with the Southern Medical Group, he discovered that I was having some problems again with my heart. He referred me to Dr. Saidi at Shands in Gainesville. After a series of numerous tests, it was determined that the bypass I had in 1987 was no longer functioning and that my mitro and bicuspid valves were leaking. I was scheduled for bypass surgery and valve replacement surgery on August 30, 2006. The diagnosis that the doctors gave me at this time was anomalous origin of the left coronary artery, a diagnosis me or my parents had never heard before. The surgery they performed was another bypass and rings were used to close off the leaks in my valves. I was lucky that they were able to use rings because the other alternative would have been to use mechanical valves and with this procedure would require that I be on Coumadin (a blood thinner) for the rest of my life. I was scheduled to have the surgery at Shands Hospital but on the day of my scheduled surgery, an emergency transplant had to use the operating room I was scheduled for, so I was transported by ambulance to Shands at AGH. Dr. Klodell performed the surgery and everything went well. I continued to recover and after 2 weeks, I was released to go home. I continued to do well, being able to go back to work. About the only symptoms I would have was getting tired easily. I continued to do well under the care of Dr. Gredler in Tallahassee and Dr. Saidi at Shands until about a year ago. I was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension and congestive heart failure which was caused from my heart not functioning properly. I was referred to Dr. Pauly, with the transplant department of Shands to start the process to see if I would qualify for a heart transplant. I was prescribed revatio (Viagra) for my pulmonary hypertension and until February, it seemed to be working to keep the pressures down in my lungs. I was put on another medication called Isosorbide, to maintain my lung pressures until I could get on the list for a new heart. I checked into Shands Hospital on Monday, March 22. On Tuesday, March 23, the doctors performed a swan cath and left the cath in my neck. This measures the pressures in my lungs and my heart. It showed that my pressures had come down 1/3 from what they were the last time they performed the cath. I stayed in Shands 2 days and was released to come home. Tuesday,March 30, 2010 at 3:00 PM I was listed at a Status 2 for a Heart!!!! I am now waiting to match for a heart and my chance at a new life!!!

Here is a picture of me with my mom and 13 year old brother!