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On May 4, 2009, Josh and I discovered that our soon to be little girl, due on August 25th, would be born with a CHD known as HLHS (hypo-plastic left heart syndrome). Upon hearing "something is wrong with your baby's heart" our lives changed completely. Our little Ruth Elizabeth was brought into this world on August 18, 2009. She was delivered via c-section and rushed immediately from Barnes to Childrens' Hospital for a cardiac cath intervention. Her arial septum was reopened and a week later, Ruthie underwent her first open heart surgery, the Norwood. Unfortunately, Ruthie was not able to survive on her Norwood heart and the Glenn procedure would not work for her. Ruthie was placed on the heart transplant list Feb.3, 2010. After waiting in SLCH, Ruthie received a new heart on July 5, 2010. We are so humbly blessed to receive this gift of life. We now are on the road to recovery. We have had our ups and downs. We have become SLCH regulars due to countless hospital stays and ER visits. We are learning how to manage life outside of SLCH and with another little girl. Now that we have two children, we are learning the about being a heart FAMILY.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Too close of a call

Breathing Tubes

Posted Aug 29, 2009 6:18pm

Well Ruthie had quite an eventful day today. She started the morning by getting her breathing tube taken out around 10am. She did okay for about an hour or so but her O2 stats did not stay stable. Around 12 they decided to give her a little more stabilty by putting her on oxygen through the nose. Her stats however did not respond the way we wanted with this move. At 2:50 her heart rate declined and her O2s became really low. Within minutes the docs were calling for a crash cart. As they worked on raising her heart rate up from 80 and her O2s up from the lower 30s and at one point 20s, we watched from across the hall. It is so hard watching and not being able to help or even know what would happen. Eventually they were able to reinsert the breathing tube and get the vent up and running. Her stats are now stable and she is resting. Apparently Ruthie was not ready for the vent to be gone. The settings on her vent are much lower already, but she was not strong enough to do it all alone yet. We know set backs happen, but watching her go down hill is not easy. They are planning on letting her rest for a bit and removing her RA line (since it is cracked) tomorrow. They are now going to make her prove she is ready before they take her off next time. All and all we are very thankful to God for letting Ruthie stay. If the nurse had not been in the room prior to this episode we may have lost her. Thank you God and please keep her in your prayers.

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