After years of chronic chest pain, Dakota finally has answers. He has a congenital heart defect, anomalous origin of his coronary artery, which will require open heart surgery to repair. Dakota, an active duty solider, has had him and his family’s life put on pause. Until surgery, Dakota could quite literally drop dead of sudden and instant cardiac arrest. Daunting and scary, for him and his wife who also have newborn and toddler at home. To know Dakota, is to love Dakota. Within 12 hours of meeting him, he was in my kitchen after running to the store; cooking pancakes for everyone while simultaneously dancing , laughing and singing with my girls and his son. While insisting myself and his wife “relax! I got this. Enjoy each other!” If you have been around Dakota at all, even briefly, you know these things to be true: He fiercely loves his family He has a servants heart, he’s the first person to jump up and help, run to the store, you name it. He is passionate about the army, and throughly enjoys (and excels at) his job as a Geospatial engineer, and he hopes to remain enlisted and retire with the military. He is an incredibly hard worker, both professionally and personally and likes to stay busy and active. His defect is super rare and super dangerous. Remember “Pistol Pete,” the NBA star, Maravich, who died tragically and instantly during the prime of his life playing a pickup game? He was found to have this same defect. Most people are asymptomatic and unaware of the defect until it is found on autopsy as cause of early demise. Those not treated typically don’t make it through their 30s. Praise God, that’s not the case for Dakota. Dakota has had severe chest pains, often resulting in ER trips…but was always brushed off or told “everything is normal,” “its anxiety..” etc. He has had episodes of chest pain since his teens, even going to the ER as early as 2015. If you know Dakota, he takes after his late grandfather; stoic, tough, resilient, and not a complainer, so for him to even go to the ER or to continue reporting it to his healthcare team; speaks volumes of the intensity he must have experienced so many times. In fact his last ER trip was the day his wife gave birth to their daughter in October, pain so intense he left the hospital room and walked down to the ER clutching his chest. Finally validating his pain & experience, the cardiothoracic surgeon told Dakota and his wife, “during those episodes of pain, you are essentially having a heart attack. Your heart muscle is ischemic, blood flow cut off, causing your intense pain.” Yikes. In order to repair this defect, and resume normal life as an active duty soldier, provider, husband and father; he will be having open heart surgery on 19 Feb. Many have asked the family how they can help support Dakota, his wife, and their young children during this time, and their answer is “just pray!” Or when prodded they expressed that meals would be most helpful, but because they live on a military installation NO DELIEVERIES (unless by mail like Amazon) can go to their house- so that elimnated a meal train, grubhub, and grocery deliveries. So here I am, writing this to bridge the gap so that we can rally around them and at least ease some daily stressors. Though Dakota will get convalescent leave with the military, we can support them by donating means for easy meals, grocery trips, gas money and whatever else is needed during this stressful time. On this page there is a “care card” and a “wishlist” button to send gift cards or money directly via their Venmo @heartfixed Please pray for Dakota, for his surgery and for a rapid and complete recovery. This has put his life on pause; not only in his day to day with his “breathe only” restrictions, barring him from working out, staying active, doing his job/going to work etc, but it also has his career and future hanging in the balance; as this could affect his ability to stay in the Army and potentially change the trajectory of his (and his family’s) life. That’s a little stressful, don’t you think? Stress alone is bad for the heart, so let’s come together and lighten the load for this family if we can.