Update on Emerson White

Please continue to not only pray for Emerson for her post transplant recovery, but remember the family that made the decision to donate their BABY's organs to a stranger. I can not even begin to imagine the heart ache they are feeling right now.

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Copying straight from her mom's blog.




Emerson’s out of surgery & in the PICU! Dr. Botha said everything went well, “as well as could have been expected, if not better”. He’s pleased. He said the donor was half her size/weight (approx 15 lbs – average weight for a 4-6 month old). Her donor was a baby.

Dr. Botha placed stints in her ureters (running from her new kidneys into her bladder). They will need to be removed in approx. 6 weeks. Additionally, he said she was oozing a lot & that is concerning. He felt it best this morning to warm her up, replace her blood products, correct her coagulation factors, and then reassess. He placed a drain into her abdominal cavity to keep an eye on internal bleeding. He also left her incision open. He said she’ll almost certainly go back to surgery in the coming days – exactly when, among other things, depends on the amount of output from the drain.

She didn’t code or go into vtach during surgery (as she did during the first transplant). Her blood pressure dropped very low, though, but they were able to stabilize it. She required lots of blood, plasma, & platelets, as expected. Her very small amount of remaining bowel looked okay, but her liver looked sick.

I’ve been reminded several times that surgery is the “easy” part. It is the coming days and weeks that will be very difficult and will ultimately tell her story. Dr. Botha said, “keep praying”. I’m relieved, though, to be on this side of transplant. One day, one hour at a time from here…

She’s resting comfortably & I’m hoping to do the same at some point today. Words could never express my appreciation for the donor family today. In their very darkest hour they chose to give another child life. My heart weighs heavy for them today; my heart weighs hopeful for Emerson today. May her life in some small way bring them comfort & peace.