Phil arrived Tuesday morning for a visit with dad prior to heading to a work appointment. Upon arriving at his room Phil noticed a team gathering around dad. They exchanged head nods as a way of saying good morning from a distance. A moment later dad went into cardiac arrest again and they began to work on him immediately while Phil stood outside the room. He watched as streams of professionals came from every direction. Phil once again experienced the haunting scene of a code blue. He quickly phoned me and asked me to come quickly. I headed out and raged against traffic until I finally arrived and greeted Phil in the waiting room outside the cath lab.
CPR was administered for 45 minutes to keep him alive while they worked to stabilize him. He is now living on a heart and lung bypass machine called an Ecmo, an Impella, a breathing machine, and 8 IV’s along with a feeding tube. The fact that he is alive is nothing short of a miracle. Patients have rarely been sustained on the Ecmo and Impella combination outside the cath lab, and definitely not for multiple days. The Impella is being used to keep blood from flowing back into his lungs. Frequent ultrasounds are required to ensure precise placement in his heart.
They actually had to cool his body to 91.4 in hopes of preventing brain damage after Tuesday’s arrest. He is now warmed to temp and appears his neurological function is still intact. He is heavily sedated, but does periodically open his eyes and is able to respond to commands and questions.
He is stable, but in an extremely fragile state of affairs. We are hoping he not only survives the weekend, but gets stronger. We have open heart surgery to place a permanent heart pump scheduled for Monday morning. They will have multiple teams operating on him to install the LVAD and repair his vascular system. It is anticipated the procedure will take 8 hours. This procedure has a 10% mortality rate, but given his condition they are suggesting a 30% mortality rate. It still seems much better than the 100% mortality rate we would have otherwise.
We have cleared the financial and insurance hurdles. We have met with the cardio and surgical teams. We have met with the VAD coordinators to learn about the equipment and discuss post-op care. All things are a go at this point. Please pray he makes it to Monday stronger and doesn’t lose a leg or have a stroke in the process. We also need his platelet count up and his blood at the proper thickness for surgery.
We are thankful there is breath in his lungs and this option still on the table. This will give him the best chance of resuming a normal life as he waits for a transplant. Now we wait anxiously holding our breath that we make it to the operation on Monday.