Brownsville family remains positive despite circumstances
Danielle and Will Robison
Will and Danielle Robison and their children, Brenan, 3, and Malayna, 5, just months before Will learned he would need a heart transplant.
Just eight months ago, 34-year-old William (Will) Robison was a healthy, active father of two. An ironworker, he was the sole income provider for his family of four. Wife, Danielle, 29, was a stay-at-home mom to the Brownsville couple’s daughter, Malayna, 5, and son, Brenan, 3.
Last July, without warning, Will began experiencing breathing difficulty at work. He called his wife, who made him a doctor’s appointment for the next day. Tests were run, and he was sent home.
That night, Danielle laid her head on her husband’s chest.
“It was pounding so hard it felt like what it feels like when you are pregnant and the baby is kicking. It (the pounding of his heart) moved my head,” she said.
Will later learned from doctors at Uniontown Hospital he was in congestive heart failure, with the muscle functioning at just 10 percent of its capability. The couple would eventually learn that a virus was the cause.
What the couple didn’t know then was that Will would need a new heart and would no longer be able to work.
Money is tight, so Danielle’s older sister, Jennifer Jellots of Clarksville, Greene County, has started an online fundraiser on the Go Fund Me website to help with the family’s expenses.
“The love they (Will and Danielle) have for each other is amazing,” she said. “It is like nothing I have ever seen before.”
The couple’s odyssey began just three days after his breathing trouble surfaced, on July 18. Doctors told him he needed specialized care, Danielle said, so they opted to go to UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh.
Will was ordered to undergo a battery of tests.
With the knowledge that he was in good care, Danielle returned home July 23 to “spend the day with the babies.”
“He was OK,” she recalled, “then on the 24th, I got a call he had coded and was on life support. When I finally got there, he was in the operating room,” she said.
Doctors had inserted an Intra-aortic balloon pump to help his blood circulate and was using a breathing tube. Three days later, doctors were ready to remove the breathing tube and pump. “He was breathing on his own and doing so good at that point,” his wife said.
The next day, he coded for a second time, and Will received an ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, machine to pump and oxygenate his blood. Surgery was scheduled for July 31 to implant a left ventricular assist device, a pump to help a weakened heart pump blood throughout the body.
“The doctor told me the surgery went great, but Will’s is the worst heart he’s ever seen in his life,” Danielle said.
He needed a new heart.
Will came home Aug. 17 to begin the wait. On Feb. 20, the couple were ecstatic to get the call that a heart had become available. They rushed to UPMC and waited.
After being prepared for surgery, they were told that the heart had gone to someone else.
“It wasn’t the right heart for him. The doctors want to give him the perfect heart for him,” Danielle said.
In the meantime, family, friends and even local ambulance services are on standby. If he needs to get there quickly, everything is in place, from child care to transportation.
With Will not working, money is tight, but the couple remain positive. Danielle credits family and friends who have held fundraisers, taken care of the children when necessary and provided emotional support.
“Will is so positive about everything,” she said. “Of course he didn’t want this to happen, and there are moments when he gets down and out. He is the strongest person I’ve ever met in my life.”
For now, the couple just keeps praying.
“God’s been with us all this way so far. I don’t think He’ll give up on us now,” she said.
Jennifer Jellots said Danielle opposed her when she said she was going to start a Go Fund Me account to help the couple with expenses.
“She said, ‘People will think I’m begging,'” Jennifer said. “But Will went from having a full-time job making good money and a perfectly healthy man to overnight, boom. I’m her sister, and I needed to do this.”
The Go Fund Me account is accessible by visiting http://www.gofundme.com/myogik/.