Benefit set for hospitalized Blaine County deputy

Blaine and Hill County communities will come together Saturday night for a benefit to help a Blaine County Sheriff's deputy who suddenly came down with a rare heart disease.

Deputy Shaun Guffin is in University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle on an artificial heart machine, awaiting a transplant.

Guffin said he realized something was wrong in February when he started feeling short of breath while walking to his patrol car.

"That was unusual because I can run quite a distance," he said.

He went to a series of hospitals — in Havre, Billings and his hometown of Kalispell — before ending up in Seattle, where doctors determined he had giant cell myocarditias, a rare heart disease.

In May, while waiting to get on the list for a heart transplant, doctors decided that he needed to get an artificial heart that is connected to a machine.

"I have two tubes that go beneath my ribs to my heart," he said from his hospital bed Thursday night.

Many days, he has appointments in other parts of the hospital. Other days, he has little to do but walk the short distance he can or lift weights in his bed.

"I'm usually not one to sit around," he said. "I'm a little stir crazy."

"But it's not too bad," he said. "My family keeps me company."

"And Wendy comes up when she can," he said, referring to his girlfriend, state Rep. Wendy Warburton of Havre.

The hardest part is just waiting for the right heart for the transplant, he said.

He said he's gotten a lot of encouragement from back home.

"Chinook is a very supportive community," he said. "Everyone's been very good to me."

Blaine County Sheriff Glenn Huestis called Guffin "a good guy, a very good deputy."

Guffin was a deputy from 2001 to 2003, and rejoined the staff about four years ago.

"He always did everything we asked him to do," he said. "He was active in the community, in his church," the sheriff said.

So it wasn't hard, he said, to get his friends together to organize the benefit Saturday, the sheriff said.

The party will be 4 to 9 p. m. at the new Elks Lodge on Main Street in Chinook,

There will be a dinner, a live auction, a silent auction, a 50-50 raffle and a side of beef will be raffled off, he said.

Businesses in Chinook, Havre and Harlem have made contributions, the sheriff said.

"The businesses in this area are great, in all three cities," he said.

Warburton said Guffin moved to Blaine County from Kalispell.

"He absolutely loves this area, and he can't wait to get back," she said.

After the transplant, he will have to stay in Seattle for several months, and then will undergo heart therapy once he comes back home, she said.