Tuesday, June 19, 2012

2:45 pm Update
 Dr. Burch has completed the Fontan!

Dr. Burch just met with us and he has completed the operation.  The anesthesiologist is letting Abby wake up and will take her off the ventilator as soon as possible.  The operation went beautifully!  Once he was in her chest he saw that the two dimensional images from the MRIs and cardio caths were a bit deceiving as to the position of her hepatic and also pulmonary veins.  Because of this, he was able to place the gortex tube for the Fontan outside of her heart as is typically done.  So, he removed the hepatic veins from her heart and stitched up the hole, then attached them to the tube and attached it to her pulmonary arteries as near the branch as possible so that both lungs should receive this hepatic flow.  He also repaired the tricuspid valve, which had been leaking, by putting some sutures near the edges of it.  The hole he made in the heart to repair the tricuspid valve he sewed to the 3.5mm hole in the gortex tube to still allow for a "pop-off" if necessary.  Wow.  So many prayers answered.  So grateful for the miracles of modern medicine.

Abby should be awake now and we should be able to see her VERY soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  :):):):):):) :D:D:D:D:D

2 comments:

Ragan said...

Yeah!!! So glad it went well!

Merilynne Whiting said...

GREAT NEWS!