Andrew's condition, 2/10 AM

Hi friends,

For those of you that haven't heard - first, the good news: Andrew Philip Haunsperger was born yesterday morning at 12:50AM. He was 9 lbs. even and 21-something inches. Teresa delivered in record time - we got to the hospital at 12:15, and the doctor didn't break the water until 12:30 or so. She's doing fine now.

Now, the bad: Andrew was born with TAPVR - Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venal Return. What this means is that the 4 pulmonary veins that bring oxygenated blood from the lungs back to the heart did not attach to the left atrium as they are supposed to but insted attached to another vein returning de-oxygenated (blue) blood back to the heart, so the red and blue blood were mixing. The only way blood was getting to the left atrium at all was through a small hole from the other side of the heart (that most babies have). His blood oxygen level was far below normal.

They transfered him from NAMC down to Children's Hospital and Andrew underwent 2 surgeries yesterday. The first was a catheritization procedure to put a camera through his veins and get a good look at what was going on. They also used a balloon to widen the hole in his heart that would hopefully give them some time to figure out how to proceed. He made it through this first surgery (5-10% mortality rate) but the oxygen levels in the blood did not rise - still around 30-50% normal. It was still useful in that they got their first clear look at what the veins were doing - since there was a near-total blockage, they hadn't been able to see with X-rays.

So, they proceeded directly to the second surgery - an open heart procedure here they tried to reattach the veins to the heart in the correct place. (They wouldn't tell me what the mortality rate is on this procedure, so I can only imagine it's quite high.) While he was on the heart-lung bypass machine, he was getting fully oxygenated blood for the first time since he was in utero - this was about 2:00 yesterday. The surgery so far has been successful - they were able to reattach the veins, which they weren't sure they were going to be able to do - but he is still in critical condition and on life support. The lungs also "look funny" (direct quote from the surgeon) - like an old person's - but the doctors theorize this may be because they got saturated with blood over the past several months due to the blockage. He's doing somewhat better this morning - his blood pressure's up, and the oxygenation levels have been 90-100 since the surgery. The doctors say the next two days will be the most critical time, so please keep Andrew in your prayers. Assuming he survives, Andrew will probably be in the ICU for a week or more.

Teresa's with him right now in the ICU - I came home to get a shower and change for the first time in 48 hours. :)

Anyway, that's all we know right now. We'll keep you informed.

God bless,
Doug & Teresa