Hello All,
Ethan Thomas Youngerman arrived at 11:42pm on Wed April 25th via c-section. Tracey had an Ultrasound and Doctor's appointment on Wed, after the ultrasound and a blood pressure measurement they sent us over to the childbirth center for non-stress test. The doctor came in after viewing the ultrasound and wanted to start the induction immediately. After receiving Petocin to start contractions, about an 1.5hrs later the doctor came in, looked at the charts, and said that the baby couldn't handle the stress of a long induction period and she was going to do a c-section immdiately. Within the hour Tracey was being rolled into the OR, I walked into the OR at 11:30pm, the baby was out at by 11:42pm, and Tracey was back in the room at 12:30am! The problems started with Ethan after birth, he didn't need any oxygen right away but after a short time his pulse-ox started dropping and they had to put him on oxygen. When Tracey visited him at 4:30 am he was at 50% oxygen. The oxygen had to go even higher than that later in the morning, so the decision was made to transfer him to Swedish Hospital immediately. By the time he left for Swedish, he was down to 40%.
The reason for moving him to Swedish was that they have an echo-cardiogram machine for infants and a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) that Northwest hospital didn't have. It turns out that the ultrasound radiologist had found an irregularity with Ethan's heart and the echo could investigate that further. Ethan's right ventricle heart wall is thicker than the rest of the heart muscle, which means that the right ventricle has had to work harder than the rest of his heart recently.
I went down to Swedish on Thursday afternoon and talked to the cardiologist. He could not find a valid cause for his condition. All of Ethan's other numbers were fine, there were no heart defects and he wasn't having any trouble breathing. I talked to some more doctors today and the theory is that there is an artery that is open when the baby is still in-utero which bypasses the heart and relieves pressure on the heart because the lung are filled with fluid. This artery naturally closes after birth and they think it closed sometime before birth which caused that part of the heart to have to work harder. The heart should get back normal operation in a few days, is the hope.
Ethan was moved out of the NICU and down to the Special Infant Care Unit, which is less serious, on Friday night.
Ethan Thomas Youngerman arrived at 11:42pm on Wed April 25th via c-section. Tracey had an Ultrasound and Doctor's appointment on Wed, after the ultrasound and a blood pressure measurement they sent us over to the childbirth center for non-stress test. The doctor came in after viewing the ultrasound and wanted to start the induction immediately. After receiving Petocin to start contractions, about an 1.5hrs later the doctor came in, looked at the charts, and said that the baby couldn't handle the stress of a long induction period and she was going to do a c-section immdiately. Within the hour Tracey was being rolled into the OR, I walked into the OR at 11:30pm, the baby was out at by 11:42pm, and Tracey was back in the room at 12:30am! The problems started with Ethan after birth, he didn't need any oxygen right away but after a short time his pulse-ox started dropping and they had to put him on oxygen. When Tracey visited him at 4:30 am he was at 50% oxygen. The oxygen had to go even higher than that later in the morning, so the decision was made to transfer him to Swedish Hospital immediately. By the time he left for Swedish, he was down to 40%.
The reason for moving him to Swedish was that they have an echo-cardiogram machine for infants and a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) that Northwest hospital didn't have. It turns out that the ultrasound radiologist had found an irregularity with Ethan's heart and the echo could investigate that further. Ethan's right ventricle heart wall is thicker than the rest of the heart muscle, which means that the right ventricle has had to work harder than the rest of his heart recently.
I went down to Swedish on Thursday afternoon and talked to the cardiologist. He could not find a valid cause for his condition. All of Ethan's other numbers were fine, there were no heart defects and he wasn't having any trouble breathing. I talked to some more doctors today and the theory is that there is an artery that is open when the baby is still in-utero which bypasses the heart and relieves pressure on the heart because the lung are filled with fluid. This artery naturally closes after birth and they think it closed sometime before birth which caused that part of the heart to have to work harder. The heart should get back normal operation in a few days, is the hope.
Ethan was moved out of the NICU and down to the Special Infant Care Unit, which is less serious, on Friday night.
No comments:
Post a Comment