medications from the cardiologist. If those medications fail, other alternatives may be considered.
For Baines, Dr. Kilic implanted a balloon pump to help the blood circulate. However, the balloon pump wasn’t helping enough, so Baines was placed on an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Machine (ECMO). An ECMO pumps and oxygenates a patient’s blood outside the body, which allows the heart and lungs to rest.
“I don’t want to sensationalize it, but it’s really one step away from death in many ways,” Dr. Kilic adds. “The entire blood supply from your body is being shunted through these catheters and to this device that oxygenates and pumps blood, so it acts to both the right and left side of your heart, as well as your lungs.”
Trusting the process
“Very very scary,” Marla adds. “Two of our daughters are nurses, so we would always talk to them about what the doctors and nurses were doing, what they are describing. And they would always give us more information and help us out, which is good. Harold’s dad died from this disease because he didn’t really know what he had, had waited too long to figure out what was going on.”
Baines “trust the process” mantra allowed him to embrace the journey and recovery without being scared.
“Some days, I did have bad days,” Baines shares. “It was hard work even after you get the transplant, what you have to do. You have to learn how to eat again, you have to learn how to walk again. It’s still a journey, but I’m in a better place now.”
Just five days after being placed on ECMO, a heart became available. Baines received a heart transplant on May 20, 2021. The next day, surgeons performed a kidney transplant.
The donor had to be between the ages of 18 to 39, had to be a male, and had to have the same blood type and the same height and weight as Baines, Marla shares.
The road to recovery
The next day, Baines was already in therapy. He could only take two steps at first and would have to sit down in a wheelchair. When attempting to sign a baseball for a nurse, he could barely hold the ball. He gradually worked his way up to 10 steps and walking the hallway two or three times.
Baines was released from the hospital on Father’s Day. His grandchildren were waiting on him.
Today his exercise consists of switching between the stationary bike, elliptical and treadmill for 30 to 40 minutes a day, six days a week. He jokes that even when he was healthy he didn’t run on the treadmill. He also mixes in band work for strength training. He is avoiding any