The Longest Day

I know many of you have been anxiously waiting to hear... Max's complete repair was a success!

Our day started nice and early and we arrived at the hospital at 6:15 AM for Max's surgery to start at 7:30 AM. We were quickly informed that Max's surgeon, Dr. Frank Hanley, had an emergency surgery the night before that went into the early morning hours and that Max's surgery would be delayed until 10 AM. We didn't mind waiting, but waiting with a baby that had his last bottle at 1:30AM was definitely not very fun. With all things considered, Max did really well and only screamed a little! We met with Max's pediatric cardiology anesthesiologist, Dr. Downey, and enrolled Max in a few trials for kids undergoing open heart surgery. Stanford is a research hospital and they are always doing studies to try to make going on the heart lung bypass machine safer. Thanks to past trials over the years, Max's survival rate went from nonexistent to 98%. Brad and I both feel that enrolling Max in these trials will hopefully help future kids like Max have even better results.

They finally took Max to the OR around 10 AM. I gave Max a big kiss and was a complete blubbering mess. It's so hard to kiss your baby good bye not knowing what lies ahead. Dr. Downy is the sweetest lady and picked Max right up and started singing to him on the way to the OR. Brad and I are so thankful for all the wonderful doctors and nurses that clinically do such amazing things but are also so loving and human with our little guy. Dr. Downy and her team started prepping Max and getting all his lines set up. He has a central line in his neck and another central line in his groin, he has two IV lines, an arterial line, and a line that goes directly into the right atrium of his heart. Around 12:45PM Dr. Hanley came to meet with us in the family waiting area. He explained the procedure and reiterated that he was very confident that this surgery would be successful and hopefully Max's last. Up until that point I was nervous wreck, but Dr. Hanley's confidence and demeanor gave me a complete sense of peace. Brad and I shook this gentle mans hands and told him to take care of our little guy!

Dr. Hanley was in the OR with Max for 4.5 hours. The majority of that time Max was on the heart/lung bypass machine. They give Max heparin (blood thinner) and potassium that slows his heart beating while he was on bypass. We have been told that the bypass machine is the size of a large table and is able to do all of the work of the heart and the lungs while the heart is being operated on. Dr. Hanley first performed the arterial switch portion of the surgery. He cut above the valves of the two great vessels and then switched the aorta and the pulmonary artery. From there he closed the small ASD that was created in the cath lab after his last surgery. Then came the super complicated closure of the VSD (Ventricular Septal Defect or hole). He actually made an incision in the right ventricle and patched the VSD. Thanks to Dr. Hanley's amazing hands and attention to detail he was able to preserve the integrity of the mitral valve. He did not need to replace the mitral valve with an artificial valve and he was able to leave all the chordates attached to the valve in their current location. After Dr. Hanley finished his portion of the surgery he spoke quickly to Brad (I was pumping) and then went to go update the ICU team. It took another 1.5 hours for the anesthesia team to stabilize Max and then he was brought up to the CVICU.

Finally around 7:30 PM we were able to see our baby. He looked really good with all things considered. We were a little surprised to find that they had left his chest open due to a small bleed that was close to one of his coronary arteries. They decided to patch this little area of bleeding with some glue type stuff and leave the chest cavity open in case the bleeding didn't stop. Dr. Maeda who is the transplant surgeon at Stanford actually closed Max's chest this morning in the middle of the CVICU. They quickly turned Max's bedside into a sterile OR and closed him up. We were told that everything went smoothly.

Overall Max has been doing really well post surgery. The team actually said that he is doing better than expected. Brad and I are so happy to see that his oxygen saturations are now reading 98-100. This number has always been such a source of stress for us since his PA band surgery at the end of May. Pre-opertatively Max was hanging in the 60s and 70s on oxygen, so we have come a long way in just a few hours.

We know that the next couple days Max is still pretty critical but we are very pleased with the way things are currently going. Brad and I know all too well from previous experience that things can take a turn for the worse quickly so we are prepared for the worst but hope for the best. But now we get to enjoy that we finally have a pink baby!

Over the next few days I will be on the lookout for Dr. Hanley. I sincerely want to thank this man for giving my son a chance. He is an amazing man and truly one of a kind. We will forever be grateful to Frank for fixing Max's broken heart. I look forward to the day that I get to tell Max about the gentle man that changed the trajectory of his life! Thank you for all of your prayers. Mighty Max is truly the biggest blessing!!!