Early last December – in her early 40s and happily employed as a history teacher at Valley Forge Military Academy – Linda Jara began doctoring for a sinus infection before “being blindsided” by a heart failure diagnosis two weeks later.
A flurry of doctor’s visits and cardiac tests followed, but her symptoms persisted. By the end of January, the Roxborough native had been admitted to Temple University Hospital and spent eight days in its Heart Failure Clinic. On Jan. 30, she was discharged with a “life vest” – essentially, a portable defibrillator. But a high heart rate landed her back at Temple Feb. 4-8, fluid retention issues forced a follow-up stay, and additional tests and transplant evaluations played out over the remainder of the month.
When one test determined Jara’s ejection fraction (a statistic related to blood flow) had dropped dramatically, she was admitted again. On March 3, she underwent open heart surgery that implanted a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) and confirmed she needed a heart transplant.
“There’s still no clear answer regarding the cause…although it’s probably genetic,” Jara says. “When I was 35, I was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy…nothing too serious, though. I saw a cardiologist regularly, took medication and seemed to be doing fine.”
Following her March 19 discharge, Jara recuperated at her sister’s Chadds Ford home before getting the okay to return to her own home in Roxborough’s Andorra neighborhood on May 22. Two months on – despite the stress and uncertainty related to locating a compatible heart donor – she remains upbeat.
“I have a tube that comes out of my stomach from the LVAD, and it’s attached to a (portable battery pack) that I have to take with me whenever I go out,” Jara says. “I can’t get the device wet so I can’t go into a pool, and showers are hard because I have to wrap the device in saran wrap to keep it dry. Otherwise, things are about as normal as they can be given the circumstances.
“Recovery from the open heart surgery was hard…there was lots of scarring…but I did well because, with the exception of my heart, I was in good health. It helped a lot being with my sister’s family. I stayed in my 8-year-old niece Jackie’s room, and she and my nephew, Brendan, who’s seven, kept me from feeling too sorry for myself.”
As she waits for a donor, Jara is doing her best “to remain optimistic.”
“I’m O positive, so either O positive or negative is compatible,” she says. “They tell me the recovery period for a transplant is three months to a year. So right now, my plan is to go back to school in September…and keep praying for a miracle.
“When you’re completely blindsided with one piece of bad news after another, like I was, you need to stay positive and hold on to your sense of humor…your will to live. I can’t just sit around being miserable every day, so I go out and walk. I can’t go too far, but I do what I can.
“Probably the hardest part for me is asking people for help. I’d rather be the one giving help, but I’m determined to do whatever it takes to keep on living. I want to see my nieces and nephews grow up, and I want to continue to be part of my friends’ lives. Where does my strength come from? I don’t know. I have a lot of faith, and I believe things happen for a reason. Even so, it’s been quite a year.”
Quite a financial roller coaster, too. Even with health insurance, the expenses she already faces “can seem overwhelming,” Jara admits. As do the ones ahead. She’s been told the cost of a transplant, associated follow-up care and medications routinely reaches $1-3 million during a recipient’s first post-op year.
“Insurance doesn’t cover everything, and with everything that’s involved, the co-pays and deductibles really add up,” Jara says. “The medications you need to take after a transplant cost something like $5,000 a month. That alone is pretty overwhelming.”
On the bright side, Jara is surrounded by “very supportive friends and family, who’ve been absolutely wonderful through all of this.”
“I have the best friends and a terrific family, and that’s what really keeps you going through something like this,” she says. “They mean the world to me. I really don’t know what I’d do without them.”
Jara’s “very supportive friends” – among them, several classmates from the former Archbishop Kennedy High School in Plymouth Township – have organized a beef and beer fundraiser on her behalf. The event is set for Sept. 12 from 7 p.m. to midnight at Washington Fire Company, 36 W. Elm St., Conshohocken. Tickets are $40 and include a buffet, silent auction, raffles (at press time, prizes ranged from a .45 karat diamond heart pendant donated by Bucci Jewelry and Design in Plymouth to a variety of store certificates and gift baskets from other area merchants) and live music by The Planets. Information: 610-564-0684 or bobbianne523@gmail.com.
Also in the works, an Aug. 1 painting party and social called Canvas for a Heart at Icons Sports Pub, 1003 E. Main St., Norristown, from 1 to 3 p.m. Owner Henry Racich is donating the space, and 50 percent of the $35 admission fee will go toward Jara’s medical expenses. Information: sharrene@yahoo.com.
Icons Sports Bar will host a benefit Comedy Night for Jara on Aug. 26 from 7 to 10 p.m. Admission is free with 10 per cent of each food-drink tab also earmarked for her expenses. Information: 610-564-0684 or bobbianne523@gmail.com.
All three fundraisers are open to the public and are being coordinated through HelpHOPELive, a Radnor-based non-profit organization established to help people with serious health challenges deal with uninsured medical expenses. Information: www.helphopelive.org.
“This is a wonderful group of friends,” says Jara pal and fellow AKHS grad Bobbi Anne Thomas. “We’re blessed to have one another, and we plan to have as much fun as possible with all of these events. The way we see it, either do it joyfully or don’t do it at all.”
