JW House Family Receives Amazing Valentine
As a supporter of JW House, your efforts made a difference by helping Evelyn Gonser be close to her son Jonathan during this challenging time. Evelyn stayed at JW House while her son Jonathan was awaiting a heart transplant. JW House was thrilled when we learned Jonathan would receive his heart---and on Valentine's Day.
The Modesto Bee ran a front page article about Jonathan and Evelyn's journey. You can read the story below.
Ceres man's heart surgery was a real valentine
By Patty Guerra -
pguerra@modbee.com
SANTA CLARA -- Hospital attendants rolled Jonathan Gonser from the operating room, giving his mother her first look at him since he received a new heart.
Tubes and machines hid much of the teenager's body, helping him breathe and distributing various medicines to keep him going. But Evelyn Gonser didn't see the ventilator, the pumps or the needles.
She saw her son's fingernails.
"They were pink," she said. "And his knuckles were even-colored."
For the first time in a long time, Jonathan's skin didn't have the gray pallor associated with poor circulation. The 18-year-old from Ceres underwent heart transplant surgery that started on the night of Valentine's Day and ended the next morning.
"It gives new meaning to the holiday, that's for sure," said Evelyn, who goes by Evey.
Doctors discovered Jonathan's heart problem in September 2008, after he complained to his mom that he couldn't get comfortable. The Gonsers took him to his pediatrician, who did some tests and referred them to a cardiologist. The cardiologist, in turn, sent them to the emergency room - immediately. More tests followed, and it became clear Jonathan's heart was not properly circulating blood.
Within a few days, he was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, in which the heart muscle gets weak and enlarged, unable to efficiently pump blood. In some cases, it can be treated with drugs. For Jonathan, that worked for a while.
