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<< Previous   of   Next >> (click to enlarge) Firefighter Steve Goforth talks about his long wait for a heart transplant at his Stanwood home on Friday morning.   ADVERTISEMENT   How you can help Help the Goforth family pay for medical expenses by donating to the Steve Goforth Medical Fund at any Bank of America. A benefit event featuring barrel races, a barbecue and a silent auction begins at 9 a.m. Sunday at the BLT Stables, 21711 Waite-Mill Road, Granite Falls. For more information, go to www.firemansheart.org.   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Monday, May 12, 2008 A man without a heartbeat: Everett firefighter waits for transplant STANWOOD -- Steve Goforth has a big heart and no pulse. He sleeps plugged in to an electrical outlet. Like most firefighters, he wears a pager. Only, when his beeps, it won't be to summon him to put out a blaze -- it will be because doctors have found him a new heart. Goforth, 37, an Everett firefighter and paramedic, was diagnosed earlier this year with congestive heart failure. He's waiting for a heart transplant. "It's rocked our world. Life as we know it at the Goforth family is no longer," said Julie Goforth, his wife. Until a donor heart is found, a machine works like a water wheel inside his chest to keep the blood constantly flowing through his body. Since his heart muscle isn't contracting, there's no pulse to feel. Goforth's two boys, ages 6 and 8, call him the bionic man. He wears a shoulder harness to carry batteries that power the machine during the day. At night, Goforth plugs the device into the wall. Friends from the fire department helped the family set up a backup generator at their rural Stanwood home in case the power goes out. The man who made a living helping people when they were sick now knows all too well what's it's like to be a patient. While vacationing in Disneyland in December, Goforth started feeling a bit under the weather. By early January, he thought he might have bronchitis or possibly pneumonia. When he coughed up blood, he knew something might be seriously wrong. "It all happened very kind of suddenly," he said. On Jan. 8, he went to the hospital and "things never got better after that," he said. By mid-February, Steve's health continued to decline. He shook all day and vomited all night. He felt so horrible he told his wife, "I'd rather be dead." He was rushed by ambulance to Providence Everett Medical Center, then to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where he spent about a week. Then doctors sent him to the University of Washington Medical Center to be cared for by cardiology specialists. "Steve, your heart's no good," the doctors told him. "You need a transplant." He didn't come home for a month. His heart was enlarged and it wasn't pumping blood through his body. Doctors cut a foot-long incision in his chest to install a left ventricular assist device, the machine that moves the blood through his veins until a donor heart becomes available. They told him it could take up to a year or longer to find a match. The medical experts don't know what caused his heart to fail, Julie Goforth said. Now, as he's waiting for a new heart, he requires round-the-clock company in case something goes wrong. The medical bills, which already have tallied around $700,000, are still mounting, his wife said. The health insurance policy caps out at $2 million. Friends and relatives are rallying around the family. Each of the 182 members of the Everett firefighter's union have donated $100, and several co-workers have donated vacation time to extend Goforth's sick leave, said union president Capt. Robert Downey. "We're just praying that everything comes out OK and that he gets a new heart soon," Downey said. Other friends have organized benefit softball games and barrel races and some friends have built a Web site, www.firemansheart.org. "It's been humbling," Goforth said. The paramedic said he was used to helping people. Now he said he knows what it's like to be the patient. "You realize what a scary feeling it is," he said. Ten years ago people diagnosed with congestive heart failure would be confined to a hospital bed, Goforth said. "I'm at home watching my kid's baseball game," he said. He's surrounded by friends and his two cats and four dogs. Once a transplant heart is found, the road to good health isn't clear. He'll be required to take an expensive medication to fight off rejection and it's unclear if he'll be able to return to work as a firefighter, his wife said. Still, the Goforths are thankful for the support they've received. Despite the hardship, the illness has brought blessings, he said. "I've seen the kindness of humans," Steve Goforth said. "It seems like you see the best of people."

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