to 3:30 p.m., with the surgery taking about twice the time doctors initially expected. Jonah's status stayed unmoved on the big board at the hospital from 8 a.m. The Barneys were the only people left waiting to hear about their loved one. "It was pretty darn brutal," Mark Baney said. Just like Jonah the night before, the anxiety and thoughts about "what if.?" kept creating doubt. "The cell phone helps, but you're there left thinking." "We have five kids, so we had a lot going on," Mark Barney said. Jonah remained in the operating room for almost seven hours. That's what everyone expected, but the surgery proved to be more complicated once his surgeon saw his heart. Jonah's parents had prepared themselves for a 3- to 4-hour surgery. "When he woke up, it was 'Go' time," Mark Barney said. So it makes sense to his father that Jonah relaxed when surgery prep began. That's who Jonah is, his father explained. It was a weird calm, like you knew you were in good hands." "When people started to come and get me prepped I was just calm. There was nothing to do: Except think.Īnd, yet, the next morning, when he finally rose around 6 after a sleepless night, all his worries faded like steam rising off a mug of fresh coffee. The oldest of five children, Jonah is always busy.īut he was in a Philadelphia hotel the night before the surgery, away from his sister and three brothers. "Jonah was unbelievable, dealing with the 18-year-old's mentality, he just wanted to get it fixed. And then he used lacrosse as his carrot."įaced with open-heart surgery was unlike any other day. His father wanted him to be more cautious. "I mean, it's my senior season," Jonah Barney said. There was no question, he wanted to play. He could be back on his feet sooner, go through rehab sooner and be back on the field sooner. If he had to have the surgery, let's do it ASAP. Jonah looked at open-heart surgery like a sports-related injury. "Hearing it from a doctor that you need to get it done quick is kind of a scary thought," Jonah Barney said. More: YAIAA tournaments: What teams are in and what teams are out of the playoffs? "Years ago he would have been the candidate to be the kid who collapses at practice," Mark Baney said. If he waited too long to undergo surgery his heart would be damaged. "This isn't just something where you go to the hospital and have it done."Ī birth defect caused his aortic valve to leak, causing his heart to work harder, which caused his heart to enlarge. He went for follow-up visits and in a matter of weeks it escalated from doctors knowing Jonah had high blood pressure to health professionals telling the family: You need to find a surgeon. "When he had the first test I just assumed they would come out and say everything would be fine," Dana Barney said. Joseph Bavaria is our surgeon, this is the right place.ĭoctors spotted the tell-tale sign something could be wrong with Jonah Barney's heart during a physical before his senior year. The family left Philadelphia knowing: Yeah, Dr. "He sat down and the doctor told him three things: Here's who I am, here's what you have and here's how I'm going to fix it." "We went there and it was this phenomenal place with a phenomenal surgeon. He used the phrase "doing our due diligence." His father tried to explain the reason for another visit, this was the research they needed to complete. Jonah thought the family had decided on the doctor and procedure to fix his valve. "He was on edge," Jonah's mother Dana Barney recalled. Not only did the Barneys need to pick a hospital for the surgery, but they needed to choose the surgical option to correct Jonah's leaky aortic valve.īut on this day, on this particular morning, Barney wanted none of it. The Barneys had already made three - or was it four? - of these trips to other hospitals. at his family's house in West Manheim Township in order to commute to Penn Medicine for an 8 a.m. And he definitely did not want to be awake at 5 a.m. He didn't want to talk about more options for his upcoming open-heart surgery. He didn't want to drive to Philadelphia with his parents to meet with yet another heart surgeon at yet another hospital.
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