Evan on the mend

A year and a half ago, it was anyone’s guess whether Evan Podsiad, then 13, would safely make it out of Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles after a life-saving heart transplant. Evan was living in Mammoth at the time. He now lives in Oceanside.

News of Evan’s diagnosis (Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia, or ARVD) prompted a tremendous outpouring of support from the Mammoth Lakes community, and inspired a July 2013 fundraiser that gave 100 percent of its proceeds to Evan and his family.

Kama Newbry, a nurse at Mammoth Hospital, where Evan’s mom Jill works as an operating room/surgical technician, thought up the event; Flossie and Ken Coulter, longtime producers of Mammoth Lakes Jazz, offered to help.

At the time, Jill said this was one of “hundreds” of tales of local generosity.

One thing about Mammoth: no matter how eccentric the town may be, in times of need it comes together to take care of its own.

In an interview this week with The Sheet, Jill said that even after the heart transplant, Evan’s fate was far from certain. “He had some rejections; he was in and out of the hospital a lot,” she said.

Now? “He’s doing really well. This is the first time that we’ve gone for one of his doctor’s appointments where finally everything is good.”

Jill said Evan was healthy prior to the ARVD diagnosis. The middle of three brothers, Evan has a love for music and has been playing in the Advanced High School Jazz Band since 6th grade, and was looking forward to attending the youth jazz camp two summers ago affiliated with Mammoth Lakes Jazz when he came home from school one day in May with swelling in his feet and ankles.

Jill took him to the hospital, where blood work and chest x-rays indicated that Evan’s heart was enlarged. The next day, mother and son drove to Renown Hospital in Reno, where the result of an eco-cardiogram ultimately led to a Life Flight to Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles.

Evan received a heart transplant on July 9, 2013.

Evan’s healthy immune system ultimately worked against him, Jill said, as it attempted to reject the new heart after the transplant. This necessitated frequent return stays at the hospital.

“We stayed at Ronald McDonald house [in L.A.] for about six months,” she said, although Evan wasn’t in the hospital that whole time. “I don’t know how many times he got readmitted for a week or two.”

But Evan has now been out of the hospital for about nine months. “He’s back in school in Oceanside, in the marching band, being a normal kid,” Jill said.

Meanwhile, Jill recently resumed her shifts at Mammoth Hospital. “When I tell people who aren’t from here everything the town did, they’re like, ‘Are you kidding?’” she said. “The town did so much for us, beyond anything I could have ever imagined. We’ll never forget this place and the kindness we were shown.”