Day 13-14

Sorry I didn't post about yesterday. It was a very bad day. Here is the e-mail I sent out to my family.

I'm sure everyone heard what happened yesterday, but I thought I would let you know a bit about what happened and what might be expected.
Jake went in yesterday for a heart catheterization to open up his ASD (atrial septal defect)-a hole that everyone has in utero that closes after birth, and they were going to re-open to allow the blood flow to the body. They put in a stent in his PDA (Pulmonary ductus artery) last week during surgery, and this was the second part to the surgery. They didn't have to re-open his chest, it was going to be all through a vein in his groin, all laproscopic. The Dr went to check the PDA stent to make sure the blood was flowing properly and when they put some blood flow through it the stent moved and went out of place, which is has never happened before. When the Dr went to retrieve the stent Jake coded and they started CPR. They called in the 2 other main surgeons and put him on a machine called ECMO. They had to do CPR for 30 minutes until they got him stable on the ECMO machine. ECMO basically does the function of the lungs and the heart to give the heart and lungs time to heal. Jake now has 2 huge tubes coming out of his right side of his neck. One pumps the deoxygenated blood out, gets it oxygenated, and the other pumps it back into his body. After he was stable, the Dr tried to put the stent back in, but the area they put the Stent in is very short, but very fat, so the Dr had to put in another stent that was much larger. The vein they used in his groin is obviously very small, and in the process of getting the new stent in it also damaged his vein. After the stent was in place, the other surgeon came back in and repaired the vein as well as putting in a chest tube to drain the blood around his heart. The good news was that the artery in his leg/groin area is doing fine, but blood is draining from the vein and pooling and pressing on the artery, so his right leg is purple, but they aren't worried about it. So, after being in surgery from 11am-7pm (it was only supposed to be 3 hours), he finally got brought back into the room and we got to see him at 9:30pm. It was really hard to see him because he is a purple grey color and very swollen. He has the 2 lines for the ECMO machine coming out of his neck, 1 IV in each of his hands, and 2 iv's in each leg in his groin area. He is also intubated, and has a chest tube to drain the blood. His kidney did not do well during the trauma, so the ECMO machine is also giving him dialisis. On the head Ultrasound last night he had some bleeding in his brain, but this mornings ultrasound didn't show it getting any worse, but because he is on heavy doses of heparin (blood thinner), they are concerned it could get worse, but the only way to stop it or prevent it is to get him off of ECMO.
It is a lot. They will probably keep him this way for a few days and then slowly wean him off of the ECMO. He started opening his eyes this afternoon, and now opens them to voices, and also has moved his arms a couple times and even twitched his leg! It doesn't sound like a lot, but we love ANY good news. Lots of people have asked what they can do, but the only thing we can do is pray, so please keep praying. Also, people have asked if they can come visit, which is fine, but just know that he is very critical and we prefer only small, healthy adult groups, but we would love to see you, just know he doesn't look the same as he did!
Anyways, I think that is all. I am going to post photos of my room with all of the machines on my blog, but I don't think I will post photos of him right now.
Thanks for all your love and support! We really appreciate it!
Love,
Liz

I'm not going to post any photos of Jake from today, but here is a photo of most of the machines. I couldn't get them all in, but I was in the hallway taking a photo of my room.

The big machine in the middle of the room is the ECMO machine.

This ECMO machine is amazing! To think it takes all of that to take the place of that tiny heart and lungs. It makes me really appreciate Heavenly Father's body that he gave us! Wow!!! Luckily today has been fairly quiet, and hopefully we will get a little more rest tonight! It was quite busy in here last night. Thank you for your prayers, and please keep them coming. I will try and post tomorrow!!