Later, after he settled down, things got to looking better. We feel he probably developed the air leak earlier that morning when he was on a peep of 20 and that was why he had done so badly all day. During the night the nurses got his oxygen back down to 50%.
The next seventeen days were a slow weaning process on the oscillator. Dylon began losing some of the fluid and his platelets started rising. They had been very low and he had required several platelet transfusions, as well as blood transfusions.
Friday, February 26, 1999 (Day 16), the second chest tube was placed due to another air leak. The medicines that were helping his blood pressures were stopped because he began stabilizing it himself.
Sunday night, February 28, 1999 (Day 18) at shift change the third chest tube was put in, and Monday morning, March 1, 1999, (Day 19) at 7 a.m. during shift change the fourth chest tube was put in.
Finally, Thursday, March 4, 1999 (Day 22) things begin to look better. The doctors removed the first two chest tubes that were placed. They unhooked Dylon to suction him out, which is almost never done while on the oscillator. The doctors also were talking about transferring him back over to the conventional ventilator in a few days.
|
