A
brutal case of pneumonia four years ago put Richard Powell on a path that would
eventually lead him to a Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas
operating room for a heart transplant weeks before Christmas.
When
Powell first got sick in early 2010, he was treated at a hospital in his
home city of Monroe, Louisiana, for about a month. He was in an induced coma
for days. The 61-year-old insurance salesman suffered septic shock and nearly
died.
“They
called my family together and told them they might want to come in and say
their goodbyes,” said Powell, who is also a diabetic. “I was fortunate …
God’s leniency was enough to let me survive.”
But
Powell’s health problems were only beginning. Over the next few years, because
of poor health, the divorced father and grandfather spent time living with his
brother in Houston and his adult son in Trophy Club, with periodic stays at his
own home in Monroe.
“He
could not get well,” said his son, Ryan Powell. “He was coming back and
forth to Dallas and just couldn’t really get healed up.”
Richard
Powell had some of his toes amputated because of complications from his
diabetes, among other problems.
On
Memorial Day weekend of last year, Ryan, his wife and two sons visited Richard
in Monroe.
“He
looked awful,” Ryan said of his father. “He was short of breath. He was
[suffering from] an infected foot … we just knew something major was wrong
and he wasn’t getting the care he needed.”
After
consulting with a physician friend, Ryan decided to bring his father to Texas
for care. Over the ensuing months, he was treated at Baylor Regional
Medical Center at Grapevine and Baylor Dallas for congestive heart failure.
Doctors told him his heart was pumping at about 15 percent of capacity and he
needed a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD). Ultimately, he would
likely need a transplant.
Gonzalo
V. Gonzalez-Stawinski, MD, chief of heart transplantation at Baylor
University Medical Center at Dallas, completed the LVAD surgery in August of
2013 and, over the next few months, Richard showed great progress. He moved
back to Monroe and went back to work. He would come to Dallas for checkups and
the doctors here advised him in recent months that he would be a good candidate
for a heart transplant.
Electrical
issues with his LVAD in the weeks since Thanksgiving landed him back in
Dallas and he was activated on the transplant list earlier this month. Within
days, on December 11, Richard Powell got the call. A match donor heart was
headed to Dallas for him.
The
transplant — believed to be the record 94th conducted by Baylor Dallas this
year — was a success and Richard was out of the hospital and back at his son’s
home eight days later.
“It’s a
Christmas miracle, it truly is,” Ryan said.
Richard
said he feels lucky that his son’s family happened to live in the Dallas area.
Otherwise, he likely would not have ended up at Baylor for his treatment.
“I just
feel like it was divine intervention that I’m here,” he said. “It is just
really a miracle. Things have just fallen in place through God’s order and
God’s time.”
Richard
has a long recovery ahead, as the first year after a heart transplant is
typically the toughest. His diabetes is another potential complication, so the
cardiac transplant team will be monitoring him closely.
His
care team has little doubt that he is up for the next challenge.
“He’s been
an amazing patient,” said Sandra Carey, PhD, ANP-BC, the outpatient nurse
practitioner for transplant and advanced heart failure at Baylor Dallas. “He’ll
do whatever you ask of him.”
The
post-transplant recovery is “a very individual journey,” Carey said. But “I
think because he’s so motivated he’ll do extraordinarily well.”
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