Tyler Story Part 2: Surgery Day
February 21, 2020. It was game day. It was finally time for surgery. Emmy was in surgery from 7:00 am-4:15 pm. She was on bypass for five of those hours. One of Dr. Emani’s primary concerns was protecting the electrical conduction system as much as possible.
During Emmy’s surgery, Dr. Emani did a procedure in which he used an electrical probe to map the electrical system of the heart so that he didn’t cut through it. This is something he had been developing for the past five years, and he said that Emmy was the perfect case to try it on for the first time. It is my understanding that Emmy was one of the first people ever to have this done, and it was successful!
When she came off bypass, everything looked great rhythm-wise at first, and then she went into complete heart block, which required a temporary pacemaker. Once they got her up to the CICU, there were a few cardiac electrophysiologists who were working with Dr. Emani and Dr. Beroukhim, Emmy’s BCH cardiologist, to try and fix the heart block. They upped the pacemaker and made her heart race a few times and it restored her to a normal sinus rhythm. She was out of heart block.
I will never forget the look on Dr. Emani’s face as he came running out of the CICU to tell us. A true miracle was performed before our very eyes. Only Jesus.
February 24, 2020. Just three short days after surgery, we sat in the corner of CICU room #27 and watched over fifteen people race to save Emmy’s life as she was coding. We never expected that, to say the least. Emmy’s heart went into flutter-induced MAT, which caused her heart rate to shoot up into the 250’s. Her heart was trying to conduct all 250 beats, thus causing her blood pressure to bottom out.
It was a moment of {organized} chaos, uncertainty, but at the same time, full assurance that Emmy would be just fine. It was a moment of feeling completely and totally helpless, but not at all hopeless. During what felt like an eternity, but was only about 30 minutes, I felt more at peace with the Lord than I ever have.
I had no control over the situation. Absolutely none. I couldn’t control Emmy’s life-threatening heart arrhythmia. Our amazing BCH CICU team was vigorously working to get her heart rate under control. All I could do was sit on the sidelines and watch the team of CICU nurses, cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, cardiac arrhythmia doctors, and respiratory therapists race to get her heart stabilized. I felt helpless, but not hopeless. In moments like that, all you can do is surrender and pray. There’s no other option.
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