Jamie Schee :: Champion Brewmaster

After cardiac arrest

Champion beer maker works to rebuild life

 

BY ELIZABETH GUTH

SPECIAL TO THE STAR-BANNER

CITRA — This time last year, Jamie Schee had just been named Florida's champion beer brewer. He was on top of the brewing world, claiming best of show and a host of gold, silver and bronze medals at the Best Florida Beer Championship.

 

This year, the father of four is waiting to see if he will need a heart transplant after battling full cardiac arrest, 90 minutes of CPR and 11 electrical shocks to restart his heart.

 

He suffered a brain injury from lack of oxygen and can't read or write. He can't be left alone and has developed diabetes.

 

The health crisis came on day 27 of a 90-day waiting period for health insurance to begin at his new job.

 

 

BREWMASTER

Jamie hated beer as a kid.

 

That changed in 1994 when, working as a cook at Hop's restaurant in Palm Harbor, he befriended the brewmaster who showed him the art. He progressed to Hop's in Ocala, where he served as head brewmaster.

 

"You taste it, you feel it, you make sure it's right - that's what brewing is," he said.

 

Jamie was working at Spanish Springs Brewing Co. in The Villages when he won Best of Show 2007 in the Best Florida Beer Championship, but the brewery closed shortly after.

 

His wife, Elissa, encouraged him to find a new job.

 

"I told him you're the best Florida brewer; put your resume out there," she said.

 

He did, and received two phone calls the next day.

 

Jamie left in July for an interview with the Bohemian Brewery in Salt Lake City. The next day, he called Elissa and said the boss wanted him to stay and work as head brewmaster.

 

The family packed up its eclectically decorated home and prepared to sign closing papers, but those plans quickly came to a halt.

 

 

CLINICALLY DEAD

Jamie had been working 70-hour weeks in Salt Lake City and went to relax on his day off, Aug. 11, at a skate park, where he went into full cardiac arrest.

 

A bystander, who remains unknown to the family, began CPR. Jamie was given 90 minutes of CPR in the skate park, ambulance and hospital. Doctors shocked his heart 11 times as they worked to save his life. He was clinically dead for 90 minutes.

 

An employee at an emergency room in Salt Lake City called Elissa from Jamie's cell phone to let her know he had been injured.

 

"I begged the doctors to not let him die," she said. "I did not want him to die alone."

 

As Jamie, then 35, lay unconscious, his wife flew across the country.

 

"The doctors told me I had to make some hard decisions and Jamie was going to be a vegetable," she said. "I refused to believe it. He was there. Even if I never had the old Jamie back, I knew something was there."

 

Jamie, who suffered a brain injury from oxygen deprivation, remembers nothing from his first three weeks in the hospital.

 

At first, he was in a small community hospital that didn't have a neurologist on staff. After Elissa and family friends Christina Bowen and David Lewis, who had flown out to support the Schees, demanded he be transferred to a larger hospital, his resilient attitude shone.

 

Instead of the anticipated three weeks in shock trauma, he spent four days, then one week on the cardiac ICU floor and four days on the cardiac floor.

 

After getting a pacemaker, Jamie moved to rehabilitation. After his feeding tube was removed, Elissa gave him salad and he rubbed the pieces in his hands. One time, she walked in to see him eating an orange - peel and all - because he didn't know he was supposed to peel it.

 

She gave him a fork and knife and showed him how to use them.

 

"It was very shocking. I hadn't realized he had lost so much," she said.

 

Doctors have told Jamie that approximately 5 percent of people live through the cardiac issues he did. Add in the brain injury and that number drops.

 

According to American Heart Association estimates, more than 95 percent of cardiac arrest victims die prior to arriving at a hospital.

 

Bowen said she's amazed at Jamie's improvements.

 

"Every time we see him, he seems a little better. We saw him at his worst; he couldn't even talk," she said. "Statistically it should have taken him a lot longer to get to where he is."

 

 

MONEY WOES

Once the Schees returned to Florida, financial problems loomed. Jamie applied for Medicaid and was denied because he had a 401K and savings, two vehicles and a camper.

 

He couldn't afford follow-up appointments with a cardiologist or neurologist. In October, Jamie became lightheaded and dizzy and spent three days in Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville. In November, he stayed a week. He suffered from a rapid heartbeat and was placed on medication. Doctors recommended he be seen by heart transplant specialists under the hospital's charity care program.

 

Blood pumped from his heart with each beat is at 27 percent. Anything below 35 percent is an indicator for heart transplant, but the doctors hope the new medicine will improve Jamie's numbers.

 

"There is a potential that his heart will come back," Elissa said. They will find out more in April.

 

Jamie is frustrated he can't drive, or work because of the long hours required and, because of the medication, he can't taste the brews, which is a crucial step in creating award-winning concoctions.

 

"This is killing me not to be able to work," he said. "Brewing beer was my life, my passion and there's not many people that can do something they love and get paid for it. My mom and dad hated their jobs and I never wanted to be that person. And I got lucky."

 

 

GOING FORWARD

The Schees re-applied for Medicaid in December. The state processed the application the day after the deadline, Elissa said, and the family was denied. The state also took away Medicaid and relative caregiver's assistance the family was receiving for its youngest child, Madden, who they adopted as a newborn from Elissa's brother.

 

Elissa asked friends and family to write Gov. Charlie Crist and soon heard the family would be covered under Medicaid and would receive caregiver's assistance.

 

But the bills still piled up.

"Our friends and family members have done everything from pay the cable bill to pay the mortgage to buy our groceries," Elissa said. "We have lived off of our savings and it's gone. His family, my mom and our friends have really come together for us."

 

Although the Utah hospital wrote off the majority of its $230,000 bill, there remain thousands of dollars in bills for doctors and services.

 

Elissa sends some $5 a month and others $20.

 

"I can only do what I can do," she said.

Friends say the Schees have always been the family helping others. Bowen said they adopted a family when the single mom couldn't afford Christmas that year. Karisa Deming said the Schees helped her many times when, as a single mom, she had no money.

 

"They just step up whenever it's asked of them," Deming said. "Every day's a battle, but they still keep getting up to fight."

 

The Schees, married 13 years, attend church at the First Assembly of God. Elissa said she has always been a believer, but Jamie was more skeptical. Now he's not, he said.

 

"I'd love to know who initiated CPR. We owe that person a huge thank you. They saved his life," Elissa said. "But I also feel God wasn't ready for Jamie. We've been told by doctors and nurses he's a miracle, and not to thank them but to thank God."

Done