The Day After

There were no major changes to Ayden's status overnight, either positive or negative.  They are having to regularly give him fluid - blood or saline - because fluid is seeping out of his vessels and into his body.  They think they may be able to rectify this problem by improving the flow of the ECMO machine.  To do that, I believe they are leaning towards putting in a third cannula in his femoral artery.  Dr. Bichell will probably be doing it this afternoon.

They cannot start to wean Ayden off the ECMO machine until they get this fluid issue fixed.  If he continues to lose fluid, they have to continue to give him fluid, and we'll be stuck in a vicious cycle.  This is all very important, since with cardiac patients, if they are not able to come off ECMO within 5-7 days, they will likely never be able to.  So, we have that looming on the horizon.