By Keith Uhlig
Wausau Daily Herald
WAUSAU, Wis. — Mike Linley is used to working to save other people’s lives. He’s been a police officer, a paramedic and is now an instructor teaching life-saving emergency medical techniques to other people.
He’s not, however, accustomed to asking other people for help. But a hereditary disease that clogs his arteries and weakens his heart combined with the limitations of his medical insurance mean he’s now doing just that in an effort to prolong his own life. Linley, 53, of Mosinee has begun a GoFundMe fundraiser to raise $25,000 he needs for surgery that would place an automatic internal cardiac defibrillator in his chest. That device would help his heart pump blood more efficiently, and also would shock the muscle if he goes into cardiac arrest.
Without the defibrillator in place to help keep his heart beating regularly, Linley will likely have another heart attack, and if he does, “it will likely kill me,” he said. “It’s a genetic thing. It’s something doctors in this country haven’t seen very often.”
Linley’s body produces unusually high levels of cholesterol, and it ends up in his bloodstream gumming up his arteries and heart. He had his first heart attack at age 33, and has suffered 15 of them in all. He’s had 145 angiograms, an X-ray procedure that evaluates arterial blockages. Surgeons have performed a six-vessel heart bypass on him, and he’s had 31 coronary stents places in his cardiovascular system, devices that help keep arteries open for blood flow.
Read Full Story: Medic suffers 15 heart attacks, seeks donations