Delaney Update 4/18

Dear friends,

You may or may not know that we had to rush Delaney to the hospital via ambulance last night. She was not breathing well, and didn't look herself at all. Upon arrival at the hospital she was admitted immediately to the NICU. Our cardiologist was contacted and he arrived shortly thereafter. At the time he suspected that there was a defect that would require surgery. All of the symptoms were there and to be on the safe side they prepared her to transfer to Children's Hospital.

During the prep for transfer, her heartrate slowed severely and CPR was administered. We were present for most of the CPR which was incredibly scary, but heartrate returned successfully. After she was stabilized we called for a chaplan, and she baptized Delaney.

At approximately 2:00 in the morning we arrived at Children's where she has been stable ever since. The Cardiologists at Children's ran all their diagnostics and have the full picture of her heart issues.

She has three heart defects. We knew about the VSD (murmur), there are two others; Coarctation and a Patent Formen Ovale (PFO). All of these are to be repaired during surgery. In order for the surgery to go as well as possible they need her to continue to remain stable. They need for her electrolytes to continue to improve and she needs to heal from the initial trauma from the last 24 hours. The more days they can keep her stabilized and resting the better the chances the surgery will be a success.

She may be in the hospital for the next 5 days before surgery. The latest issue we are waiting on is that they would like a better IV for the prostiglandin, most of the veins that they typically use are already occupied, so they will pobably use a femoral location. This will ensure that they will be able to get a solid line for all of the meds and nutrition. Lindsay and I will probably be spending the next few days at Ronald McDonald House so we can be as close as possible.

Please continue to send your prayers. We'll keep you posted as we learn more.

All of our love, Brian, Lindsay, & Delaney