No other sicknesses. Just overweight. We thought he was stable a couple of days ago but then he wasn’t. He’s on dialysis and ECMO treatment (puts blood through a machine that oxygenates and removes CO2 and then sends it back into you).
Got good news just now - they took him into surgery and adjusted the cranula that draws the blood and reinjects it for the ECMO treatment and they’re already seeing his blood oxygen level rising.
I wish there were a custom dislike button, one to dislike what your friend is experiencing. The situation is despicable. No one should be put through that. Indeed, virus is cruel.
ECMO is life support way beyond ventilation. It means that heart and/or lungs are just not working. But consider this: it doesn't mean no hope. If it did, they wouldn't bother doing it.
@Thad E Ginathom I understand. They weren’t seeing improvement in his blood gas levels with vent on 100% so they did the ECMO procedure. I was feeling less hopeful when ECMO wasn’t working but they figured out that the placement of the cannula was causing the oxygenated blood to go straight back into the machine instead of circulating through his body. The adjustment fixed that. Much better now.
I do have hope. Being on a ventilator alone is a very tenuous situation. Because I know so many doctors, I know that many COVID patients who make it this far have not survived but I do still have hope. He is young so that alone is working for him.
Got a lot of really hopeful news today. Ventilator has been at 100% since Jan 7th but today they have lowered it to 70% and so far O2 is still good. That’s great because ventilator is hard on the heart.
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