I’ll start at the beginning. 17 years ago my dad , Paul, underwent a double bypass surgery. Which was a long recovery and painful. Everything since has been GREAT with his heart. we were told back then that bypasses typical only last 10-15 years. And there are only so many veins that can be used for bypasses in your body (my dad had a vein from his arm used for his heart back then). He has gone to all his check ups and tests since. 3 months ago he was told that his heart was in great shape! He has battled high blood pressure for most of his life. Everything was great until the night before (or early morning) of Christmas Eve. He was watching tv and got pain in his chest. That got serve quickly, and he woke my mom up to take him to the emergency room because he thought he was having a heart attack. He arrived at Doylestown and quickly discovered it was NOT a heart attack. At first we were all so relieved. However; the news that followed after that was worse. They believed he was having an aortic dissection. And needed to be flown to University of Pennsylvania hospital. When arriving new tests were ran. And he was scheduled for surgery at 7am. They took my dad back at 7:20am. And he did not get out until 7pm. Basically. My dad’s whole aorta was torn, his value was detaching from the aorta and it was pinching the two arteries that were done in bypass. Thankfully: the scar tissue from his previous heart surgery is what saved my dad’s life!!!! It held it all together as much as possible and basically acted like duct tape. The surgeon said that the surgery he just went through is NOTHING compared to what he just had. All of his tests are coming out right on track or better than what they would expect for a person who went through what he went through. He will be in the hospital for at least a week before he can come home. And they told my mom she needed to rest now because recovery will take a lot of work and exhaustion on her. I am making this in hopes to relieve some of the stress and work on her since my dad will require so much attention and assistance. All the love and support we have all received has been so much appreciated. Words cannot describe the appreciation we have for all the prayers and thoughtful words.