Behind
The
Scenes
Memorial for SAM
This event is to honor Sam Lemmens, who passed away November 25th, 2024.
A conversation between Sam's wife, Lynn, and his best friend, Joe, about all the people who want to make a difference for the family and remember Sam in the best way possible led to this!
Music has always been his passion, so SamFest was the obvious choice!
The Full Story
About
Sam
Sam Lemmens, born June 30th 1987, Belgium.
Amazing daddy, husband, son, grandson, nephew,
friend, guitarlegend.
The most kind, vibrant, loving man. "If you weren't Sam's friend that was only because of you."
Sam was all about family and living life to the fullest. Enjoyed his Westmalle'ke and mussels at the coast, gave the word "stepdad" a whole new meaning, his son became his little hero and made loving him the greatest feeling in
the world. Even with those dadjokes!
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He will be remembered 'till the end of time.
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What happened...
written by Sam's wife; Lynn
Sam needed to have heartsurgery on November 6th 2024. His mitral valve leaked and there was a deviation of the connective tissue in his body.
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Sam entered the hospital in good spirit the day before the surgery. A day full of examinations to see if he was in top condition before the operation and yes, he was!
The morning of the surgery I received a phone call. My strong hubby was ready for it! I would get the cardiosurgeon on the phone six hours after they started. How long those hours lasted. After six hours of waiting, I still didn't get a phonecall, so I called them myself. I was told that there had been some delays due to organizational reasons. The cardiosurgeon was going to call me as soon as possible. Two hours later I received the redeeming call: The operation was successful, they could repair the valve with its own tissue.
But then time stopped for a moment... She told me that an hour after the surgery (when they shut down all the machines, sew up wounds,...) they had to resuscitate Sam for 20 minutes due to cardiac arrhythmias.... They did not know why this happened and had to search again. Without a clear answer, she told me that Sam was kept in an artificial coma at Intensive Care. No one knew how it would turn out, but he was stable. With the constant fear that he would get cardiac arrhythmias again, I immediately went to the hospital with Sam's mom.
When we got there, she told us that they were gradually going to wake Sam up and that his condition looked hopeful.
And yes, he did it!! He was allowed to go to Medium Care, where he was constantly on heart monitoring. Then some more good news: he was allowed to go to a normal room. Still with a heart monitor, but the other machines/drainages were disconnected day by day. It all sounds very good, but the pain he felt were unbearable. His leg was numb, that gradually came back. Back, shoulders, arms,.. everything hurt. "Due to the long surgery and the resuscitation" we kept being told, but we felt that not much was done about it. 10 days of hellish pains, especially at night. A very light muscle relaxant (because a heart is also a muscle so they had to be careful), morphine,... And still the pain was unbearable. The physiotherapist's exercises should make his muscles more relaxed again, so the message was to persevere.
After those 10 days, Sam was allowed to go home on Saturday, November 16. Honestly? I was very happy, but still very scared. The pain was not yet under control, but he was fine after the last examinations. Sam wanted to go home so that he could go to the physiotherapist at home and work on his rehabilitation there. On Monday he was allowed to do light exercises, Tuesday morning again. He came home, his mom who had an appointment with him at the physiotherapist dropped him off, and he felt good. He looked good, finally had a nice tan, was happy after he finally had a better night. How nice it was to see him like this! Xanne was at school and I was at home with Morriz. Together we were making lunch and we were chatting at Morriz' changing table. Chatting about how scary the past period had been and how much we love each other! He told me that he was never going to leave me, that I wouldn't get rid of him so easily.
After a laugh, a tear, an intensely warm hug and the sweetest kiss, he sat down on the couch with his food. I was still busy making Morriz' patatoes. Suddenly I heard from the living room:
"Honey, I don't feel well".
All hell broke loose. Sam fainted on the couch and looked pale. I put Morriz next to the coffee table and walked to my mobile phone to call 112. In full panic, I had to pull Sam out of the sofa and start CPR. Because of my work as a childcare worker I knew what I had to do, but those 15 minutes were the longest of my entire life. The ambulance arrived first and they took over the resuscitation. I called my mother-in-law, Marijse, that she had to come over immediately! The MUG had already arrived. Marijse took over Morriz from me. We couldn't do anything, only isolate Morriz from the crazy situation with dad. The MUG doctor decided to transfer Sam to UZA, because he had had his heart surgery there. I had my neighbor, who in the meantime was there too, call UZA to inform Sam's cardiosurgeon. A large team was waiting for Sam.
His aorta was ruptured and cut off Sam's heart of blood. Back into the surgeryroom. Waiting again and hoping for good news. We didn't get any really good news, only small miracles with which we still saw a chance for improvement. Sam's heart was almost petrified, and the ECMO-machine kept him alive. A few times they woke him up briefly to check his brain. To see if he still responds and he did. Neurologically he was wonderfully good! I was allowed to chat to him for a very short moment. He tried to say "I love you too", that was a magical moment!! But he had to rest, he was fighting so hard to get better!
After long consultation within the team, the options for donor heart in Belgium or mechanical pump that they install in Germany were put on the table.
A donor heart was a lottery ticket due to many factors, certainly Sam's condition but also size, weight, gender,...
Germany was the best option.
They would take away his heart and replace it with a mechanical pump. Then he could rehabilitate, still in Germany, and eventually a good donor heart could be placed. It was all very complicated, but it was actually our only option to have one more chance!
On Sunday, November 24th, Sam went to Germany by helicopter. My oldest brother Stefan drove with me and Xanne to Bad Oeynhausen, where Sam had arrived at the hospital. We were allowed to see him for a while (Sam was constantly under anesthesia) and then he went into the surgeryroom. Another surgery of long hours! At half past 2 at night, I received the redeeming phone call that the surgery had been successful! I agreed with the surgeon, a Dutchman, that I would meet him the next afternoon and we could discuss what was going to happen next.
At 11 in the morning I called the hospital to ask when I was expected to see the surgeon. In the meantime, I was called from Intensive Care from another line. They asked me to come there immediately, because they had to stop the treatments. Completely panicked, we checked out of the hotel and drove to the hospital. The doctor was waiting for us and told us that many complications had occurred and that it didn't look good. I decided to talk to him alone to spare Xanne from the details.
Sam's condition had deteriorated so quickly, even with an external lung, that they actually told me that there weren't going to be any improvement.
In the end, I didn't have to decide IF but WHEN they would turn off the machines. I went to visit him, called Marijse (how do you tell this to a mom, we had to decide this together,..),.. But the decision was clear in the end. This was no longer possible, we didn't want to do this to him. His body was exhausted, completely exhausted.... I decided to turn off the machines right away, a complete nightmare!
Difficult to write, but this decision is really well thought-out. The worst thing I ever had to do, he deserved so much more. He fought so hard, showed us what miracles he could still perform! How beautiful, strong, unbelievable he is! He deserves that, I am so proud of my beautiful husband!
The machines were turned off on Monday, November 25, 2024 at 1:34 p.m......
Benefit
"Everyone tells me that they want to do something for me, the kids and the family. That is the other reason of SamFest.
Because of all the major costs (hospital bills, notary, many other things that has to be taking care of,..) we decided with the bands/friends to organize a benefit as well.
This way everyone can support in their own way and be sure that they are doing SOMETHING. Buy a ticket, give us a hug, , drink a beer, buy a t-shirt (yes, there is merchandise!), and just party like Sam would have done!
For people who cannot make it to SamFest,
but would like to support us I made a crowdfunding page.​
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I would really, really like to thank everyone already that has been there through it all! THANK YOU!"
X Lynn