A NEW HEART SAVES MOTHER Heart-Rending Journey: Rare Heart Condition Puts Mom in Danger
By Beth L. Jokinen, The Lima News, Ohio
Jun. 25–LIMA — Molly Deeter-Pontius always wanted to be a mother. Her wish came true Feb. 3 with the birth of Jack, a little blondhaired boy who looks much like his mom.
The mother and son had seven weeks together, until a heart condition almost left the little boy motherless.
Today, just weeks after Deeter-Pontius, a 1999 Bath High School graduate, had a successful heart transplant, the little boy is back home in Columbus with his mom and dad, Peter Pontius.
Grandma and Bath teacher Ann Deeter had been caring for Jack. Getting ready to take him back to Columbus and to stay with the couple for a few months, Deeter said earlier in the week that she can hardly believe the last four months.
“I don’t even know how to put it in words. There were so many times, like Mother’s Day, when I thought we were losing her,” she said of her second youngest of four children.
Deeter-Pontius, 25, had a routine pregnancy and uncomplicated birth, but problems set in when she returned to work at Children’s Hospital in Columbus, where she is an X-ray technician. She stated having trouble breathing and walking.
What doctors first thought was a gallbladder attack ended up being Postpartum Cardiomyopathy, a rare form of congestive heart failure caused by pregnancy. She was given a 50 percent chance of survival.
Within 48 hours she needed a pacemaker and defibrillator. She seemed to be recovering, but within a few weeks was back in the hospital. A few weeks later, she learned she needed a new heart. Her name was placed on the transplant list, but the urgency of the situation soon presented itself when further testing was done.
“The doctor walked in and just leaned against the counter and said, ‘You need a heart Molly, you really do.’ She reached over and grabbed my hand,” Deter said with tears in her eyes.
A day after being moved near the top of the transplant list, Deeter-Pontius called her mom who had returned to Lima to say doctors had a heart for her.
“I hung up the phone and we just collapsed. We were just sobbing because it is a scary, scary thing,” Deeter said. “And we were also going through that someone had to die in order for her to get this heart. It was a wonderful, wonderful gift.”
Surrounding by Jack, family and friends from high school, Deeter-Pontius prepared for the transplant June 10. Deeter said it was an upbeat time, with everyone cheering her daughter on as she went into surgery.
“No one was crying or upset because everyone knew that if she was going to survive, she had to have this heart,” she said. “It was not a morbid, sad time. It was like, this is going to get Molly home with Peter and Jack. That’s what we focused on.”
Now that Deeter-Pontius is out of immediate danger, the family has another worry: paying the medical expenses, health insurance costs, medication and other expenses. She won’t be able to work for at least a year and has lost her health insurance. The couple, who just celebrated their second wedding anniversary, is facing close to $1,000 a month just in medication, and another $1,100 to pay for COBRA insurance.
The family is already getting some assistance, including from Deeter’s co-workers and others at Bath schools. Teachers have paid two month’s worth of insurance payments, house payments and medical co-pays, amounting to a little over $6,000. Teachers have held various fundraisers and some are now having money deducted from their paychecks.
“I can’t say enough about Bath schools,” she said. “It is just amazing. Bath always takes care of their own. I’m just blown away. I don’t even know what to say.”
Two accounts have been set up to help the family. The Molly Ann Deeter-Pontius Benefit Account No. 747368421 can be accessed at any Chase Bank. The Molly Pontius Medical Fund has been established at Fifth Third Bank.
A benefit concert will be held at 7 p.m. July 11 at Sacred Heart Church in Fremont. Deeter’s sister attends the church.
Deeter will stay with her daughter for a few months, helping to care for her and Jack as Peter goes back to work fulltime and tries to finish school. She’s anxious to have her daughter spend more time with Jack, saying that early on, she was pulling away from him because she thought she would not survive. It is a much different story now.
“Now, it is like she’s planning on being around, and it is kind of touching,” she said. “She got to feed him cereal in the hospital the other day and that was really neat.”
Jack giggled and chattered recently as his grandmother held him, Deeter obviously glad she could be there for him while his mother is sick. She also cherishes time she has alone with her daughter, like a recent visit to the hospital.
“I pulled the recliner over to her bed,” she said. “We didn’t talk the whole time because she was resting, but I just felt like, I got her back. I feel really lucky.”
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