Hey Brian,

I'll try not to make this story to long. on the morning of oct6 05 at about 9am.i was sitting on my couch when suddenly I felt pain to my upper left jaw. seconds later the chest pain started. I went into the bedroom and told my wife what was going on and to call 911.i was transported to the Christiana hospital (Christiana, Delaware) within 20min.after 3hrs.

I was diagnosed with a dissected ascending and descending aorta. I was rushed off to emergency surgery which lasted 7hrs.after the surgery I was doing pretty well for the first few days then everything that could go wrong went wrong. my kidneys failed. I had pneumonia and a blood infection. I was put in a endued coma for three months. during the coma none of the doctors thought that I was going to live. then finally my kidneys started functioning and everything else started to fall in place.

My ascending aorta was repaired however the descending wasn't. my doctors tell me that I gave live with the descending  aorta dissect ed but I have to keep my blood pressure under control and don't lift anything over 20lbs.i was in the hospital for 17 weeks. I can't say enough about how the doctors, nurses and everybody involved took care of me and saved my life the Christiana hospital is one of the best in the country. I am currently doing cardiac rehab three times a week. I have to get a ct scan or a mri every 6 months to check on the stability of my aorta one day I may have to have another surgery but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. When I was first released from the hospital the hardest then for me was the mental part of my recovery mentally.

I'm doing pretty well now, .laying on my back for so long in the hospital I had to basically learn how to walk again. Before i got sick I worked out almost everyday and that helped in my recovery, .after I was released from the hospital my mother told me that years ago i had two relatives that dropped dead from an aortic dissection .my surgeon told me that my dissection was a result of high blood pressure at the time of my dissection i was taking high blood pressure medicine but for some  reason it got out of control. I can be  contacted by other survivors at hoodwind56@comcast.net