Monday, February 13th

Will is still making progress!

He is off of his vasopressin drip, and he is almost off of his epi drip. They have also weaned his milrinone, dopamine, and morphine drips. His ventilator settings are the same, but that's fine. He also lost a pound of fluid over a 24 hour period. This is also a big achievement!! Go Will go!

Currently, Will has 2 tubes that are keeping his chest open. Dr. Bove is thinking about removing these tubes later this week and see how he does without them. The main concern is how much pressure his chest wall will put on his conduit and his heart once these tubes are removed. Once they see how he does, they can think about what they should do about closing his chest. They may have to do a tissue/skin graft over the opening until they feel his chest can be closed safely. The main reason they would do this is to prevent an infection, while giving his body time to grow so he can tolerate a chest closure.