National Wear Red Day

Today everyone at Steiner Tractor Parts was asked to wear red to support a friend as well as all others suffering from heart disease, and as you can see many showed their support.

Shannon Sabo-Weber, Customer Service Rep here at STP knows very well the importance of cardiac research. Shannon’s husband Jim has suffered with a heart murmur since birth. But his condition is way beyond what many go thru, read his story below and show your support for Jim and so many others like him.

I was born with a heart murmur. For most people it goes away on its own. For me it began a lifelong battle.

At age 4, I was diagnosed with Aortic Stenosis and a double murmur. Every year I had checkups then at age 17 during one of these checkups they noticed the aortic valve was enlarging. At this point they suggested a valve replacement. For this replacement I chose an artificial replacement instead of mechanical due to my lifestyle and age.

8 years later, at age 25, I was not feeling well. I had shortness of breath and severe back pain. Thinking it was just a bad flu, I went to the ER. That is where they informed me that my lungs were full of fluid and my heart was enlarged. After a month of test. I was scheduled for another valve replacement…this time I went with a mechanical valve. Also, a ring was placed around my mitral valve and an aneurysm was found and repaired. After a long recovery I have always said I never felt the same. I never felt right.

My symptoms were all over the place. I started having terrible chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness and other symptoms beginning in 2013. I fainted at work and after that they put a recorder in to see what was going on. I went to doctor after doctor with everyone of them saying they couldn’t find anything wrong. This happened even after they recorded  a heart attack on October 17th. I spent 4 nights in the hospital at that time without anyone being able to tell me why or what was wrong. The early morning of November 3rd I was just about to lay down for the night and I went into cardiac arrest. Before the night was over I was shocked 5 times, was considered dead for a little over 9 minutes, airlifted to U of M, put into an induced coma and started on a therapeutic hypothermia therapy.

During the week that I was out my family was told I would not most likely wake up. Then they were told if I did I would not most likely regain motor skills, walk, or talk. I can’t imagine the weight my family carried not knowing what was going g to happen. The Thursday after I was admitted they decided to pull me out of the coma. After a long night with bad drug reactions accompanied with hallucinations and not being able to warm up, we realized Friday I was nothing short of a miracle. The doctors, my family and friends who had seen me just days before could not believe that in just a week I was leaving the hospital. I have always said and truly believe that everyone that was surrounding me that night and days following were put in place to keep me alive. I do not take advantage of one day i have been alive since.

Jim Weber