| gshase |
05-07-2020 10:28 PM |
Elissa Post Transplant Update
Our hearts go out to the donor and their family. Tonight my daughter Elissa got her new lungs after waiting, tests, hospitals accepting, hospital rejecting, and finally Duke. Without their generous life saving gift resulting from their own suffering, I would not be able to share this final news of my daughters Lung Transplant surgery.
1. Dr. Haney remarked on finding "young pristine smaller lungs" that can grow into her chest cavity. Her chest cavity is bigger from expansion of old lungs, but over time will conform with the growth of the new lungs. ECMO was used to sustain the lungs.
2. The biggest and best news. When taking out the lungs they were held together with minimal spillage. They had a controlled bleed and used 1 unit of blood. No issues with removal that was predicted.
3. The smaller lungs was easier to place into the cavity. Her sternum is wired back together. Her incision is under the breast tissue, but the surgery is more mid breast area in placement.
4. She has 3 chest tubes on each lung, 1 chest tube by the heart, and 3 tiny drains internal.
5. She is off ECMO and on a ventilator. She will be weaned off vent tomorrow morning. She will be given an epideral block at the site for better pain control before they wake her up.
6. Her port was left in and will be pulled at another time. It is in good working condition.
7. They took cultures of the lungs and biopsy to determine infections to treat. She will maintain her current antibiotics and will adjust if needed. Not seeing any issues of infections at this time.
Overall, the best outcome for a lung transplant surgery we can ask for with a total surgery time maybe 6 1/2 hours and with prep work brought it to 8 hours total per doctors report. He was extremely pleased with the quality of donor lungs being so young and pristine condition to last her a very long time.
She will be placed in the new wing 7 west.
Next steps starts in the morning.
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