ECMO

Lalo was put on ECMO Thursday night. This is Basically a heart and lung bypass. The doctors felt that he was not progressing the way they would like and ECMO will allow his heart and lungs to rest and prepare him for surgery. It will also help stabilize him, we were told that this is like hooking him back up to the umbilical cord. He was moved from the NICU to the PICU for this procedure. Besides all the tubes in previous pictures he now has two large tubes that are removing and supplying blood to his body in his neck. We have not been able to make ourselves take any pictures since this has started. It is extremely hard to see our little guy like this.

Since the start of ECMO he has been much more stable, but has been holding more fluid. The doctors felt that they should add an artificial kidney into the system. Not that his are not working properly, just due to the fact that they are giving him lots of fluid and his little body can't keep up. He is extremely swollen because of this. They have had three kidneys clot up and are working on the fourth. Again not a bad thing just an issue they have with adding a kidney system that is not specifically made for the ECMO system. Pray that #4 lasts longer than the others.

Since the ECMO treatment has started he has shown signs of improvement. They have been able take him off a few support systems he was on such as nitric oxide and an oscillating (sp?) ventilator. He has been showing some signs that he does not need to be on ECMO. They said there's a chance they may try and ween him off earlier then the expected 10-18 days babies in his condition usually are on the ECMO treatment.

This is just a small portion of info from a very stressful few days. We will try to update every few days or so to give everyone a general idea of how little Lalo is doing. Thank you for all your kinds notes and emails, please know we are getting them, just don't have the minutes to reply right now.

The ECMO team member told us today that the best way to have family and friends help is to have them donate blood. These ECMO babies need lots of transfusions, Lalo has already had many. While you can't donate directly to him, it definitely helps the general cause.

Sarah & Lalo