What Does A REALTOR® Do When A Loved One Ends Up In The Hospital With A Heart Attack?

Well, I'll tell you what I did when my husband had a heart attack on August 23^rd, 2009, and ended up at Mass General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. I put together a visual tour of a place that helped me get through the first two weeks of this ordeal. It is my hope that this blog post and visual tour may help someone else get through a similar crisis, with a little more ease and a lot less stress.

The day my husband passed out on the living room floor and was sent to the hospital was the scariest day of my life. He didn't complain about a pain in the chest or numbness of the arm. Instead, he said that he was feeling flu-like symptoms, a headache and sore throat. Apparently, these are the symptoms of a heart attack, as well, but most of us don't know this. Fortunately for him, as soon as he started feeling unwell (two days prior), he started taking aspirin. I truly believe that this helped save my husband. That, and the fact that all of the EMS team and hospital staff he was sent to, acted quickly and correctly. I can never thank them enough!

When I was told that he would definitely die without the surgery and that he very well could die with the surgery, I imagined the worst. I began replaying all of the moments in our 35 years together. Disappointingly, I was having difficulty pulling those great memories to the forefront of my thoughts. Instead, I found myself thinking of how lonely I would be without him. I had to keep reminding myself that I am an independent woman and that I would survive, no matter what happened. "Remember, you're never given more than you can handle," I kept telling myself.

I did find that I could be strong. I can't begin to tell you how much support I received from friends and family, but suffice it to say, I drew most of my strength from them. (By the way, to those of you who feel the need to help someone in this situation, text messaging is just as supportive as a phone call and believe me, there are a lot of phone calls that need to be made.)

What helped me the most however was continuously talking to other family members at the hospital and assisting them in finding discounted housing; giving them tips on where to eat; giving them hope and basically, comforting them as best I could.

One of the tips I fixated on was the discounted housing. There is a Holiday Inn one block away from the Mass General Hospital. It costs $200 a night to stay there! That might be fine for one night, but who can afford this when your loved one has to stay for an indeterminate amount of time.

There are two options for discounted stays with Mass General Hospital.

I first learned about the discounted housing options from "Kitty". Kitty is employed in the Social Services Department of the hospital. I found her to be a sympathetic and calming influence in a sea of chaos.

Option One:  Mass General Hospital leases one whole floor in La Quinta, (it's like a Day's Inn), located off of Exit 29, in Somerville, and costs $79 a night.

Option Two:  MGH also leases the second floor of the Beacon House on Myrtle Street on Beacon Hill in Boston. The cost for a 2 bed suite, which is what I had, is $69 a night. If you can't afford this, there is one other option in the Beacon House: The Annex. It has 4 single bedrooms which share 1 bathroom. It is a ‘pay as you can' setup.

I loved the room I had in the Beacon House and its proximity to the Mass General Hospital. (It is only 10 minutes to walk to the hospital.) I began taking photos of the Beacon House and the surrounding area when it occurred to me that I had a skill that could get the word out about the Beacon House much sooner than the 48 hours it took for me to find out. I put my Visual Tour software and my fondness for photography to work.

What follows is the result of my passion. It has also been my catharsis, so to speak. Enjoy :-)

P.S. At this writing, my husband is still at Mass General. He is improving day by day and we hope to have him in a rehab facility within the week. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. Contact person for the Beacon House is Sharon Scott. You can e-mail her at slscott@partners.org

Here's to a better year for all of us!

Frances Sanderson, Franklin, NH REALTOR®, Certified EcoBroker^®