Getting over the first big hurdle

It is 11:15 am. Today is Briana's ninth day on ECMO, and her last. They gave her another trial off this morning, and she did well, so she is ready to come off. The surgeon is arriving at 11:30 to perform the decanulation. It is a 10 minute procedure, with a little clean up time, and thats it, no more ECMO!!!

After the surgery today, they informed us that she make take a little dip, which is very common and almost expected with the adjustment of her body now taking over, but that will only be temporary. She is going to have to wait a few days for the heparin to get out of her body before they can do her corrective surgery. Heparin is the anticoagulant that is used with the ECMO system to keep the blood from clotting, so right now, Briana's blood is very thin. Once the heparin is out of her body, she can have the surgery to move the abdominal organs down and repair the hole in her diaphragm, which we are hoping will be Monday or Tuesday.