Not according to plan

Amelia went in for a very basic surgery. She came out on an ECMO bypass machine and right back at square one.

I was in the middle of a conversation with a cardiologist, talking about discharge instructions, and in walks another doctor. He is out of breath and asks to have a word with the cardiologist. When they leave the room I see a lot of scurrying nurses. They were whispering "what's going on?". The doctor walks back in and says "there's been a complication, it's very serious and that's all I know." Really? I called David, who just started back at work, and he came as quickly as he could.

This morning, before the chaos, Amelia's SATS were a little lower than desired, so they did an echo on her. Everything looked great. The shunt that was put in her heart during the original surgery(http://babyheart.in/tag/blalock-taussig-shunt/), was wide open and everything looked good. A couple hours later they took her to the O.R.

So they started anesthesia and she handled all of that well. After 45 minutes they were just about to start the procedure when all of a sudden her oxygen levels bottomed out. They had to start CPR, but while all this is happening, her organs, most importantly her brain, wasn't getting any oxygen. BY THE GRACE OF GOD, this happened in the O.R, but more so,  her cardiac surgeon was in the room right next to her and he was able to run over quickly and get her hooked up to the ECMO machine. She was out for 25 minutes. Right now we are waiting to see if this had any effect on her brain. So far, so good, but it's early.

So what is believed to have happened is, the BT shunt just up and decided to clot. The BT shunt provides blood to get to the aorta, which gets blood to the rest of the body. This complication is the biggest threat to these babies. If this had happened anywhere else, she would have died, most likely. I cannot wrap my mind around that. 

We're back at square one. They're going to have to go back into her heart and redo everything. She'll need a new BT shunt. There will need to be a bunch of tests, but right now it looks like surgery will be on Friday. \

I am so grateful to God that everything lined up well enough that she was in the O.R when it happened and that her Cardiac surgeon was just right next door to her. I am going to be honest though, I am so pissed. We were so close. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. For the love, we were talking discharge instructions when this happened! I am still in a cloud of information. I feel like I could sleep for a week. 

Right now our prayer request is that our sweet girl would have NO damage to her brain or other organs. We need her body to rebound well from this so that she can go into surgery in the best state possible. 

She has been through so much already, I am heart broken to have to watch her go through all of this again. 

Thanks, everyone. 

Kelly.