little maddie needs prayers again

remember sweet maddie that we prayed for a couple of months ago? boy has the last month been full of recovery for her! her family was readying themselves for her to be discharged from the hospital last week, and she suddenly became very critical again. she is back on machines for breathing that she was finally weaned from, and it looks like a heart transplant is now necessary for this 3 year old little girl. her parents ask for prayers that her lungs would heal so that the process for a heart transplant can begin. here is the email from her dad that i received this morning...

Monday November 26, 2007

11:00 AM
The ENT team is about to start a rigid bronchoscope to try and remove the casts in Maddie’s lungs by suction. The eminent risk for any procedure while on ECMO is bleeding. If the bronchoscope nicks her trachea, she could bleed and possibly be unable to stop. The hope is that they will encounter only a few casts and once removed, her lungs would inflate. The other possibility is that they would encounter massive amounts of casts to the depths of her bronchial tree. They would still attempt to remove these, but at a greater risk of bleeding.

12:10 PM
The bronchoscope was very productive. Unfortunately they found lots of casts. Fortunately they were able to get everything they saw without any significant bleeding. In a couple of days the doctor will come back and take another look to see if the casts have returned. In the meantime the RT will attempt to puff a little air into her lungs and see what happens.

There is a two part problem that needs a two part solution. Part one is to clean up her lungs presently to get her off of ECMO. Part two is to treat the underlying cause of the plastic bronchitis. If the underlying cause is her Fontan circuit, she may be looking at a heart transplant. I hope that is not the case.

10:45 PM
Since the day Madeline was diagnoses with HLHS we pretty much knew what her course would be. She has been a difficult case in every stage, but at least we had the hope of being "Done" for a while. We have always said, "Norwood, Glenn, Fontan, and then maybe a heart transplant in her early teens to late twenties." What a great feeling it was last week to be at the end of her Fontan. - ready to go home and enjoy normal life for a couple of decades. Sadly, that will not be the case for our beautiful daughter. The topic of heart transplant as one of many alternatives has become the only alternative. No one can say what the precise cause of the casts that have spontaneously formed in Maddie's lungs is, but it is clear that they are a product of her Fontan circuit. When she comes off of ECMO there is every reason to believe that the casts will return.

Today has been perhaps the hardest for me to swallow, because I always knew the plan, and now that plan is gone. Today we closed the book on the three-stage procedure we started three and a half years ago. Tomorrow begins a new chapter of the story of Maddie's heart transplant. There are still many obstacles to overcome before she is even eligible for a heart, so tomorrow we will focus on her lungs. She must come off ECMO to move forward and she must use her lungs to come off ECMO. She has two lungs, so take your pick for prayer.

please join me in praising God for carrying this family so far, and pray not only for healing that would bring glory to God but peace for her parents while they are in this valley.