Letter From Staci

Bridger had a cardiac cath procedure today to find out what is making him so sick. He wasn't as stable as they would have liked but they didn't think they could wait any longer. The cath showed what we had feared and that was that his mitral valve is too small and stenotic-that means that the blood cannot get through to oxygenate other parts of his body. Of all of the things they could have found this is probably one of the hardest to fix, plus his lungs have gotten so sick that makes it even worse. So we have three options-two resulting in imminent death and the last with less than a 50% chance of survival. So Bridger will be going into surgery tomorrow (Sunday) to try and repair his mitral valve and aortic arch which might be able to buy him some time in order to grow until he could tolerate more intervention. We just need him stay where he is at right now and build whatever strength he can for the surgery. If he makes it through surgery he will likely come out on ecmo( a machine to run his heart and lungs for a time so they can rest) usually that time period is about a week and depending on how he responds we make decisions from there. I thought I would post this myself so that everyone would know exactly what we are up against. It is good that he survived the cath and so I continue to pray that he will have the same strength and will to endure what is to come. Thank you for all your love and support.