Valley marine veteran fights for survival

PALMER — The day after his son’s wedding, Richard Hartman died four times.

Doctors told Hartman — a 58-year-old veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps — that he would have to seek treatment for his heart in a Salt Lake City Veterans Administration Hospital the day before or the day of Jacob Hartman’s wedding Dec. 11, 2013, but Hartman insisted on staying for the momentous family occasion.

By the time Hartman left for Salt Lake, the situation in his chest was critical, and as a consequence, he died and was revived four times shortly after stepping off the plane.

The problems with his heart started soon after the truck driver fell off the top rung of a ladder while tarring the roof of his house in 1993. A heavy bucket of tar fell on top of him, compressing his heart, destroying his left ventricle, and creating a large blood clot that shortly thereafter caused his first heart attack, Jacob said.

The young Hartman inhaled deeply after reciting a litany of heart operations Tuesday. There was the triple bypass in 1996, followed by a double bypass, three stents, and three different defibrillator pacemakers over the course of 20 years.

“We couldn’t tell you how many actual heart attacks he’s had,” the younger Hartman said.

Richard would go without an episode for a year or two, then suffer another attack. He would work as a lumberjack because he could do the work by himself and go at his own pace, but then he became too ill even to do that, said Debbie Hartman, his wife.

The problem got worse in late 2013. Doctors told the family that Hartman had six months to live, at best. Without a device known as a Left Ventricle Assist Device (LVAD) he would perish. The Alaska VA put in the application, but it was rejected, Debbie said.

“He really started going in and out of the ICU after that,” she said.

Then the Alaska Heart Institute got involved. They worked with the VA to re-submit the original application, which was approved on the second try, setting up the December wedding dilemma, the family said.

After reviving Hartman, doctors rushed to install the Jarvik 2000 device currently lodged in his chest and powered by a wire running through a surgical incision in his stomach.

The device is, at best, a temporary fix, designed to prolong Hartman’s life long enough for him to get off the heart transplant waiting list. He’s at the top, Debbie said.

However, Richard, who grew up in the Valley, will still need to remain in Utah (with Debbie, his caregiver, by his side) until doctors are sure the transplanted heart isn’t rejected, Debbie said.

“We’re looking at another year, probably,” she said.

In the meantime, the family waits, and the bills mount. Hartman has been denied for many forms of public assistance. They’re trying again for Social Security and Disability, but Debbie and Richard are living out of a VA-provided hotel room in Salt Lake and covering about $1,700 of monthly expenses out-of-pocket, including blood thinners to prevent the blood from interfering with the device, food, laundry, and bills in Alaska, Debbie said. She’s stopped working in order to take care of Richard full-time, and family and friends are helping as best they can with donations, she said. Doctors are struggling to keep Richard’s heart inside a narrow band of stress. Too far in either direction, and Richard might not survive his transplant, Debbie said. Infection — the wire from the device leads straight to his heart — is a risk, as is overly strenuous exercise.

“We’ve dealt with this for 23 years,” Jacob said. “This was the worst case and everyone is surprised that he survived it, because I mean, it was that bad. We’ve dealt with a lot of things … and this is by far the worst.”

The family has booked a shelter in Iditapark near the Wonderland Playground in order to hold a fundraiser to offset some of those expenses, and a family relative will provide live music at a benefit set for between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m., Aug. 2. They’re making the rounds with local media to get donations, and they’ve set up a Wells Fargo Donation Account to collect help from anyone who will offer. While they’re working for donations and contributing their own money, they’re also waiting for a phone call telling them a heart has become available. For example, Debbie plans to be in town until Aug. 8, but could at any point rush to the airport in order to be in Salt Lake for the transplant procedure.

“I could be on the next plane out,” she said.

At the same time, a heart transplant is the ultimate zero-sum. The family knows that in order for Richard to live, somewhere in America, someone else must necessarily die. Family members say they’ve made peace with that grim truth. At the recommendation of the hospital — though family member say they’d do it anyway — they plan to write a letter of thanks to the family of the donor.

“It’s not like we’re standing back, rooting, come on, somebody die,” Jacob said. “It’s more of the fact that it’s going to happen, and we’re taking a bad situation and trying to make something good out of it.”

Donations to the Hartman family can be made via Wells Fargo Donation Account 3587675921, or by participating in the Aug. 2 event.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com.