Maddox coming off ECMO... April 5, 2011

At 9:30 am we were met by Dr. Arnold with much concern.  Maddox continued to bleed.  In fact, he started  to bleed from new sites.  Maddox needed to come off ECMO.  Each morning at 10 am several attending physicians, surgeons, directors, a professor and other doctors from other disciplines meet to talk about Maddox; his progress and care for the day.  Each day we are present at those rounds to listen.  Today there was a sense of urgency about our son.  His bleeding was out of control.  It was time for Maddox to show what he could do.  He was coming off ECMO.  We must say that while his numbers were not great for someone to come off ECMO, they were acceptable.  The flow of the machine was at 50 (lowest) and his blood gases looked good.  Typically, when someone is coming off ECMO, a trial is done to make sure they are ready.  In our son's case, there would be no trial.  He was coming off whether he was ready or not. As you could imagine this was really stressful and scary.  Thoughts went through our head 'would this be the last time that we would see our son alive?'  The fact of the matter is that only 50 percent of babies make it off ECMO.  Counting the time he was placed on ECMO, this would actually be his 5th surgery. Maddox's first surgery was when he was placed on ECMO. He had to get the ECMO canulas connected to his artery and vein in his neck. The other 3 surgeries were previously mentioned in the blogs. The operation to remove the canulas from Maddox' neck was done by a one of Dr O's partners' named Dr Lee. He's really good too. He's one of the 3 that handles CDH surgeries on the team. We spent as much time with Maddox as we possibly could.  We read the daily text together and how fitting it was Psalm 65:2.  We prayed together and now it was time to wait...... 

Several hours later, Dr. Arnold came to us and brought the great news to us that Maddox operation was successful and he's tolerating being off ECMO. He's completely relying on the ventilator. That means his lungs are working some. Before getting off ECMO they decided to change from the conventional ventilator to one called an oscillator. The thought was that his lungs would receive optimum support from this one.  It's a gentle type of ventilator that jiggles air into the lungs and keeps them open to allow air to pass through quickly. Their thoughts were correct.  He responded well to this ventilator. The oxygen support that he needs is a little higher than they want but they'll work to get that down some.  Nonetheless, today was a big day for Maddox. This is a HUGE hurdle that Maddox overcame.  After 13 days, he is finally off ECMO. Our son is continually fighting and he's doing such a great job at it. Although we aren't out of the woods, we still have ways to go for his lungs to work on their own. Thanks to all of the prayers and thoughts that were made in Maddox's behalf. Thanks to Jehovah! :)

Below are some pictures of Maddox's after ECMO. It's so wonderful to see him off of the machine!!

The oscillator machine to the left.

 Nice to see full head of hair.. :)