Friday, July 6, 2012

Flashback Friday~PDA surgeries

June 24, 2011 was Day 38 in the NICU.
This was the day of the PDA surgery for Carlos and Sofia.
Marcos had to wait another week because he was getting over pneumonia.
About 10 days prior, Carlos was switched to the high frequency ventilator.  He was really sick.  A blood culture was taken to check for infections. Also, his x-rays began to show that his right lung was slightly elevated than his left.  Doctors were never really able to explain why or how this happened. The only explanation we got was that his right diaphragm did not function correctly.  Diaphragm paralysis.  It was something that we had to wait out and see if it resolved itself.  Luckily it did and a major surgery was avoided. Carlitos had the most difficulty getting off the ventilator. He failed extubation several times and was on the vent for about 8 weeks.  
Around the time of the surgery, Carlos was weighing around 910 grams while Sofia, my smallest, was 785 grams.  
The surgeons didn't want to operate when they were smaller.  
They were both receiving hydrocortisone to help treat their premature lungs.

Pictures from the morning of the surgery.  Scary times.  

Carlos getting prepped for surgery.



Praying with Sofia



Carlos




Post-op....Carlos



Sofia




1 comment:

  1. Brought tears to my eyes. My twins both had their PDA surgeries on the same day. It was such a scary day. Cade's vocal cord was paralyzed because of the surgery. I know that the surgeries were life saving. It's hard to look back at pictures from that time.

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