Friday, July 31, 2009

Resting on ECMO

Baby Jackson is stable and resting on ECMO. For those of you who don't know about ECMO, it is basically a heart/lung bypass machine that will give Jackson's lungs a rest and time to develop more. ECMO is used when the ventilator settings would have to go outside the "gentle" ventilation strategy settings to keep O2 and CO2 measurements in check. To avoid compounding the already critical situation by damaging his lungs with more aggressive ventilator settings, they bypass them with ECMO and perform the O2 and CO2 gas exchange in the blood in a machine and then return it to his body.

Stef did get to visit Candice today and she is still in a lot of pain. She may be discharged as early as tomorrow. We did hear that they determined the liver is down below the diaphragm which is good news and should make for an easier surgery. The surgery isn't on the immediate horizon as they give Jackson some time to rest.

Please continue to pray for this little CDH warrior who is fighting so hard to get through this difficult battle.

We will update as we get more information.
Shawn