LVAD update

The surgery went well!!! The LVAD is in and the surgeon closed up his chest! That means that Danny is among the 2% of people who had a small enough amount of bleeding and whose right heart accepts the new pump that the surgeon felt it was safe to close him up. Another benefit to closing his chest today is that he will go back on blood thinners tomorrow, which adds another level of safety to the whole thing. The one concern the surgeon had was that Danny's valve was too leaky to leave alone. The surgeon had to sew the aortic valve shut to stop the leaking because it would have definitely caused problems with his heart. The problem with closing the valve is that in the rare event the pump stops, there is no place for the blood to flow out to the rest of the body, which would cause certain death. However, the pump failing to work is rare and that is absolutely something God can handle!!!

Danny is still fully sedated and will wake up on his own probably in 6-12 hours. When he is breathing on his own again, he will be extubated. Of course they cannot be fully certain that brain function and liver function is normal yet, but I'm just believing God for that!

I will keep you updated and we still have a very long road ahead of learning how to use this new machine inside of him! He can go back on the transplant list after he is recovered from the LVAD surgery somewhat. Remember, the LVAD is designed to keep him alive until transplant...

But, so far PRAISE GOD!!!!!

Thank You Prayer Warriors!!

Update again soon :)

Tricia