Scary, scary night

First, Pat is still alive.

There is some question about whether he will last the week.

Pui and I had gone home at about 7 to try and get some sleep. Grandma was staying at the hospital. At about 9:40 she called us, telling us that the CICU desk called and said that Pat's parents needed to go there. I was so unsettled I dropped the phone. I rousted Dad out of bed and got him to drive Pui and I to the Hospital: was in no condition to drive.

It was an incredibly long 15 minutes to get there.

Once there, we learned that Pat had crashed a little earlier: his heartbeat and breathing had essentially just stopped. The doctors manually massaged his heart for almost an hour, until they got the team and equipment together to put Pat on the ECMO machine. (ECMO - extracorporeal membrane oxygenation - is basically a heart-lung machine.) He told us that they were trying to hook him onto the machine as we spoke, but that we should be prepared: usually children are put onto the machine in much more controlled circumstances, with more preparation. Also, given the type of sudden crash and prolonged CPR, there was a chance of severe organ damage.

About an hour later, the doctor returned to tell us that Pat had been successfully plugged into the machine, and Pui and I could see him in a few minutes. And I thought the drive in had been long.

The doctor (Dr. Mazor, a straight-shooter who has the good taste to share my first name) explained to us the benefits and dangers of the ECMO, and we discussed possible outcomes. He was encouraged that the initial chemistry from the hook-up showed that his organs hadn't all stopped working, and appeared far more hopeful than he had been an hour earlier. He hadn't been pessimistic earlier, but he was careful not to give us much in the way of expectations.

We were able to see Pat about 20 minutes after that. He has a new bug red tube coming straight up out of his chest, and another one going in at a flatter angle. He is considerably more swollen than he was before. He is completely still because of the drugs he has been given to stop him moving and keep him from feeling any pain. They have lowered his core temperature several degrees Celsius, because it appears that helps slow down metabolic loads and gives him more chance to heal.

We will know in the next two or three days if he will survive this setback. It may take longer to discover if there has been any permanent damage to some of his other organs, most notably - and terrifyingly - his brain.

It's now 2 AM, and Pui and I are going to try and sleep. Not the kind of night we were hoping for. :-(