It is a time of giving. I would ask yof you for a gift. Not money or material things that can be replaced but a prayer for our friend's 6 yr old son. I come to you today with a very heavy heart. We have some friends who adopted two children. Andrew is a very active, considerate 6 yr old. He fell ill earlier this week. At a time where he should be excited, and most cheerful, he is in the hospital fighting for his life aganist pneumonia. Please see details in a personal email from his father.
Thanks Steve
From: Tom Hagan [mailto:quasy1@bellsouth.net] Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 5:36 PM To: 'Tom Hagan' Subject: Andrew's Condition
Hey Everyone,
As some of you are aware, our son Andrew is in Kosair"™s Hospital in the ICU. He is in pretty serious condition, but the doctors are looking for a good outcome. Over the weekend, he got a really bad fever and we were treating it with over the counter drugs. On Monday night, he started to develop a bad dry cough that he kept through the night. When he got up on Tuesday, his color was really pale, he was dizzy, and looked horrible. We took him to the doctors and they immediately sent up to Kosairs because his oxygen stats were low and his lungs did not sound good. We got here and they took an xray and then a CAT scan and ruled that he had an extremely bad case of pneumonia. His right lobe was completely filled with fluid and his left lung was beginning to fill.
Overnight he did well but they took another xray on Wednesday and his left lung now looked worked. All the blood cultures they took came back negative, so they weren"™t (and still aren"™t) sure what caused this. There was talk of possible intubation at that time, but they decided to continue to monitor and hope the antibiotics did their job. But around 7pm, his oxygen stat drop dramatically as did his blood pressure. The entire team brought the crash cart in and they did an emergent intubation, placed a central line to monitor his fluid volume, and an Arterial line to monitor his blood pressure. Over the next couple of hours, they monitored his status on the ventilator and they weren"™t improving as well as they hoped. So they brought in an ossulator, which is a high pressure ventilator, and it is keeping his lungs and aveoli opened and delievering high pressure oxygen.
The good news is that the xrays are showing that his lungs are getting better. The left lung has lost a lot of the fluid and the right lung actually has some air in it today. They are weaning him slowly off the ossulator and he has a wonderful team of doctors and nurses.
The bad new is that at this time he is on medication to keep him totally paralysed and pain free. His blood pressure continues to drop and they have him on medication to keep this in a normal range. Everytime they try to wean him off this medication, his blood pressure nose dives and they have to increase the dose. His urine output has decreased and he is getting swollen with excess fluid. Because of all the blood test, his lab results showed that his blood count was low and he needed a transfusion today.
We wanted to update everyone and keep you all informed. We will let you know more when we do. Please keep Andy in your prayers. He really needs them right now.
Steve, I certainly,along with my family ,will remember this young boy and his family. Here's too another Christmas miracle, so that this boy can get home with hi sparents and enjoy all that this special season means--the celebration of the birth of the Christ.
I knew I could count on you guys. I went to the hosptal after work today. Poor fella looked pretty bad. His parents and my wife and I shared several hugs and kind gestures.
I told them about HNI and how there are a lot of wonderful caring people here.
After the tears we all shed they simply said to tell you "Thanks".
Update: I thought that you all would like to know.
It is not good friends. They had to take him to surgery and put him on and ECMO machine. Basically what the machine does is act as a artifical lung. He had to have two tubes placed in main artieries. One in his juglar and the other in his femoral. His blood his sucked out one end goes into the machine where the fluid is removed and the blood is warmed and return through the other hose. I am unsure of how many transfusion he has had. I am going to donate for him tomorrow. I can not express the gratitude for the prayers.
I have cut and pasted the sring of prayers and emailed them to Andy's parents. We will be forever grateful. For you parents please give your children a hug and tell them you love them because you never know what tomorrow may bring.
Update: I thought that you all would like to know.
It is not good friends. They had to take him to surgery and put him on and ECMO machine. Basically what the machine does is act as a artifical lung. He had to have two tubes placed in main artieries. One in his juglar and the other in his femoral. His blood his sucked out one end goes into the machine where the fluid is removed and the blood is warmed and return through the other hose. I am unsure of how many transfusion he has had. I am going to donate for him tomorrow. I can not express the gratitude for the prayers.
I have cut and pasted the sring of prayers and emailed them to Andy's parents. We will be forever grateful. For you parents please give your children a hug and tell them you love them because you never know what tomorrow may bring. Steve.
Steve...I know most of the time prayers are to be done in a prayer closet but there was times in the scripture that prayer was open and as a group. I would liketo express this prayer openly and I need someone to agree.
Lord Jesus , we simply ask you to speak a word of healing to this young man. We do not come in our own holiness or merit but we ask in your name because your Word tells us to. Your Word says to believe that we have recieved our petitions before they are made manifest...so we are thanking you in advance for the good report. Thank you Jesus. Give the doctors the wisdom and skills needed as well. Encourage the parents of this child and suppy all of their needs according to your riches in Heaven. Touch this child in Jesus name ...we pray for a speedy recovery in Jesus name.. Amen.
Christmas gift for Andrew (UPDATED)
