Talk of ECMO

One of the treatments for a CDH baby who has a high degree of pulmonary hypertension is ECMO.

ECMO stands for ECMO stands for Extra Corporal Membrane Oxygenation. In a nutshell, they cut the carotid artery in the neck and insert cannulas. Blood is removed, cleaned, oxygenated, warmed, and put back into the body. This is done so that the heart and lungs can rest while the machine does all the "breathing." (basically heart/lung bypass.)

There are many risks involved, but the main one is that they have to use heparin in the circuit to prevent the blood from clotting. Special care has to be taken to make sure that no bleeding occurs, and they do ultrasounds of the head every other day or so to make sure there are no brain bleeds. It can also cause damage to the kidneys. However, as risky as it is, it truly is a life-saving treatment. Those of us who have had kids on ECMO often say that it is a love/hate thing. It truly is.

For those who are interested in what this thing looks like, here are some pictures of our daughter on ECMO. You'll have to click on the pics to really see them, as they are way busy... You can see the tubes of blood circuiting around her, and all of that machinery in that picture is JUST for her.

Today ECMO was mentioned with regard to Averi, and Kevin and Teresa signed the consent form just in case it is needed. In short, specific prayer requests would be that 1) she won't have to go on ECMO, and that 2) if she does, there would be no bleeding, that the kidneys would maintain their functioning, and that the ECMO would truly be something that would give Averi rest. Additionally, if Averi goes on ECMO, she will have two nurses exclusively for her. One to sit by the ECMO machine 24/7 and the other who is responsible for her cares.

Presently, they are having to give Averi more drugs and are constantly tweaking the settings on her machines. They had been giving her morphine to keep her calm, but have now switched to a paralyzing agent to make that happen. They are now having to whisper around her and have to keep touching to a minimum. Her blood pressure is being affected just by talking normally around her. She is such a princess already! They kicked out one of her roommates because he was too fussy. On a positive note, her blood gases were a little better after the paralyzing agent was given. Your prayers and encouraging comments are much appreciated!