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!
