Joey has just arrived in his room from the cath lab. The pictures are below. I will try my best to explain what they found. Joey has a stent in his PDA that was placed to hold it open when he had his hybrid procedure. Normally the PDA closes after birth, but in kiddos with HLHS they need it open so blood can get to the heart. Joeys PDA stent has tissue growth inside that has narrowed the opening. He also has narrowing in his arch above the PDA. You can clearly see the difference between his left and right sides that feed the body in the picture below. These narrowings have increased pressures in the heart causing it to have to pump harder, it has also decreased blood flow to the actual heart muscle, and to the body. To attempt to repair it they need to balloon open the arch first, so that when they open the PDA back up it wont further crush the arch above it. Joey also had narrowing in the arterial vein in his leg, this prevented the doctors gaining access to the areas of the heart that need repair. Dr. Cheatham (the cath lab dr.) called down Mark E. Galantowicz, MD who is Joeys heart surgeon to have a look and attempt to come up with a solution. They are going to open his chest toward the bottom the the incision scar he has already to gain access there, and also go in through a jugular vein in his neck. He needs to have this repair done as soon as possible. He will have surgery either tomorrow or Wednesday. If all goes as they hope and plan the areas that are narrowed will be reopened wide enough to give Joey time to rid his body of the corona virus, gain some weight, and strength before having his Glenn procedure. I asked if he will be able to return home afterwards and Dr. Cheatham said yes. It has been a very emotional day for me, as you can imagine. If we has not gotten Joey in and made these discoveries he would not have made it long without corrective action. We are very blessed that this was caught now. Joey is on the respirator and will stay on it until after they do surgery. It is very hard to see him this way, so I do not plan to post pictures right now. Please continue to pray for him.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 01:09:50 +0000
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