Marcus needs a new heart

— On their 35th wedding anniversary, Willadean and Dennis Nelson sat by the bedside oftheir criticallyill son, Marcus, in a room in the Cardiac Vascular Intensive Care Unit of Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock. Marcus, 24, their youngerof two sons, has congestive heart failure.

Monday night, he opened his eyes and talked to them. That was the best anniversary present the couple could receive.

Tuesday morning, he ate breakfast.

Now, they wait and pray and hope.

Because his heart isn’t functioning property, he’s too full of fluid for a heart transplant, even though he’s on the list for one.

His kidneys and liver have threatened failure.

A heart pump, the HeartMate,which won government approval Jan. 20, is essential to sustain Marcus’ life until he is healthy enough for a transplant and until a heart is available.

Marcus is on Medicaid, which will pay for the transplant, but not pay for the HeartMate, which will cost around $100,000.

Marcus, at 6’3”, is a big man.

The donor must be a big person and have A+ blood.

“It doesn’t matter if it was a man or a woman,” Willadean said, “as long as they were big.”

Marcus was first diagnosed in 2009, just 10 years after he graduated from Pea Ridge High School.

“It’s viral. Right now, they think it may have come from a tick bite,” Willadean said of the virus that caused the heart failure.

In the summer of 2009, Marcus had an incident that was initially diagnosed as a seizure. He went to a hospital emergency room and was given anti-seizure medication. The next day, it happened again. “He flatlined,” Willadean recalled.

The next two years were a blurof doctor’s visits, in and out of hospitals and finally, the stay in Little Rock.

“It’s been terrible. It’s been a lot of hardship on the family and me personally,” elder brother Parker, 29, said. “I just hate to see him suffer. He’s tough, strong willed. But, the congestive heart failure is just wearing him out.”

“It makes me think about how much shorter life can be. I don’t take it for granted,” Parker said.

“We always rode dirt bikes together and played golf. He can’t do it anymore.

“The last thing we did together was fish. That’s more laid back. He didn’t feel very good to do that,though.”

His parents, Willadean and Dennis, are by his side during visiting hours. Otherwise, they sleep in the waiting room of the Intensive Care Unit.

Friends back home have formed a group -Friends of Marcus - to raise money for the heart pump.

A dozen people gathered in Henry and Mary Durand’s living room Monday night discussing ways to raise the money needed. An informational booth will be set up Friday, Aug. 26, at the football stadium during Pride Night. Tickets will be sold for a 50/50 fundraiser.

Marcus’ father, Dennis Nelson, worked the “chain gang,” moving the chains along the sidelines of the football games for many years.

Marcus graduated from Pea Ridge High School in 2003. His elder brother, Parker, graduated in 1999.

Parker’s fiancé, Jessica Mickelson, was in Marcus’ class.

“You realize how fragile life is,” Ericha Nichols Sebree, Marcus’ first cousin, said.

“We hope the community who helped us grow up, will help keep his heart beating and give him an opportunity to live a full life,” Mickelson said.

For the past two years, many family celebrations have been spent in the hospital.

“She (Willadean) spent her birthday in the hospital,” said Babe DuBois, paternal grandmother.

She said there is no history of heart disease in the family.

Marcus has had two pacemakers.

After the first pacemaker, the family thought he would be fine.

“We thought everything would be okay, but he started passing out,” Ericha remembered. “Everything was shutting down.

They said they couldn’t do anything for him.”

That’s when the family decided to take him to Little Rock.

Jessica said: “It was hard ... such touch and go ... we didn’t know what was going to happen. He was so out of it, he couldn’t carry on a conversation. It was scary. It was a shock to see him like that. He was a totally different person.”

Marcus’ grandparents are Bob and Babe DuBois of Bella Vista; Robert Nelson of Pea Ridge; and Dimple Henson of Bentonville and the late C.J.

Henson, auctioneer from Rogers.

“I just want to thank everybody for all the prayers,” Willadean said.

“He’s on prayer lists all over the United States.

We appreciate all the help we’ve gotten from everyone.”

Willadean is a member of Free Will Baptist Church, Garfield.

News, Pages 1 on 08/24/2011