V. Equinox on 20/10/2021 at 23:24

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Hello all, this is from Fett's son:

Hi everyone, this will be hard to read and we apologize for the suddenness of the message but things have happened quickly and we've had to respond accordingly.

Dave Johnson was in the hospital since Sept 29 and they were trying to figure out if he was in heart transplant rejection. He had an ablation, to fix a fast heart rhythm, and the underlying rhythm was worse, because of how poor the heart was he went into what's called cardiogenic shock and multi-organ failure. This means that his heart, liver, gut, and kidneys were all failing very quickly. They tried putting an intra aortic balloon pump in to support the heart and an external pacemaker to control the heart rhythm. That wasn't good enough so Friday night they had me decide between end of life or ECMO because the only organ that he had that was work that was working correctly was his lungs.

We went with ECMO, and he got dialysis, he's also getting plasmaphoresis for the specific type of rejection they now know that he is in. He seems to be responding to all of it he's awake now, he's confused some, and very emotional. We're having to control how much interaction he has with people because the medication's and confusion can cause him to panic a little at times and then his blood pressure drops dangerously low and then they have to sedate him.

However right now we're looking really good it's looking like he may be able to keep this heart from the first heart transplant. He's got about a 50/50 chance of making it, maybe a little better because he has already proven how tough he is and how strong his will to live is, that's what the doctor told me yesterday, ECMO is a very serious intervention and you just aren't out of the woods as long as you're on it. It was necessary to save his life.

His kidney, liver, and gut function are all coming back and the doctors are more and more confident he won't need a kidney transplant. So way better than Friday night when he was very close to death. Everything is looking up, we are all exhausted but happy today.

Jason Moyer on 21/10/2021 at 02:57

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Keep fighting, Dave!

Pyrian on 21/10/2021 at 03:25

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Thanks for updating us! It's very appreciated. Best of luck to Fett, I hope he pulls through!

Starker on 21/10/2021 at 08:51

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Hang in there, Fett!

Al_B on 21/10/2021 at 10:28

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Spoke with him a little while ago and was impressed with his positivity and attitude towards life. I'm wishing all the best that he pulls through the latest challenge that's been thrown at him and thoughts are with all his family as well.