Our Story

It was Christmas day and our family was just sitting down for a big dinner. It was early afternoon and most of our children were with us. The exceptions were our sons Alex who was in Argentina and Red who was in California visiting his in-laws for the holidays. We had talked to both of them in a three way phone call so we could all visit together. We have seven children. At the time our oldest two children were married. It had been a great day so far. Just as we were eating the phone rang and I answered it. It was kind of noisy so I stepped into the living room to hear. Red's sister-in-law was on the phone asking about Red's medical history. She said he was tossing a football around in their back yard and collapsed and wasn't breathing. Another sister-in-law was doing CPR on him. While we talked the EMT's arrived and were shocking him to get a rhythm. It was the most stressful phone call our family has ever received. We were blessed because they got Red's heart beating (our Christmas miracle) and he only spent a week in the hospital. It was there determined that he required an ICD to ensure this wouldn't happen again. That was just the begtinning for our family. Within the next 22 months, three more members of our family needed an ICD (defibrillator/pacemaker).