As many in our facebook group know, there had been a liver that became available for my dad, was harvested at about 7-9pm in Orange County and liver transplant was a go.  I got a message confirming the transplant from my mom at about 12:30am and drove from an hour away to be with her.  We were so close!

Upon arrival, I went to go meet with mom and with a sad, tired look on her face, told me that the doctor just came and said that my dad had asphyxiated during intubation, meaning he had partially suffocated and his oxygen levels had dropped.  They had to get him stable again and as a result postponed the transplant.  Dad was put on more antibiotics and blood culture was taken to check for signs of infection.  He will stay intubated and sedated.

I can’t imagine the stress and rollercoaster for my mom.  She had been signing papers, praying and watching the transplant team prepare for this all day.

It must be one of those ‘happens for a reason’ events and we’ll keep positive and stay patient.  Driving to the hospital I saw a shooting star on the freeway; I took it as a positive sign and made my wish.  Thank you to everyone who responded so late in the night and to our family and friends on the other side of the world who also kept us in their thoughts and prayers.

Best wishes to the recipient of the liver.  Dad will have a bronchoscopy the following day to check his airways.

Sundowning Effect

Before being intubated, dad was having what’s called “sundowning effect”, where he would hallucinate and see people all over the room when the sun goes down.  He would become very restless, sometimes his body jumping and ducking in bed with hands over his head.  Such a weird phenomena as how he would even know the sun went down.  He’s not even facing the window.

Dad and I had been having fun with each other, even in hepatic encephalopathy, with him half knowing what’s going on.  He was still very humorous, laughing back and forth at little things (like me catching him trying to mess with his tubing) or for no reason at all, and thoughtful, mumbling for me to get coffee downstairs and always excusing me if I needed to leave the room.  Never mean like most people in that altered state.  Having no control of his actions and still having an awesome and positive attitude (always smiling and nodding that he’s going to stay strong for us), shows how much of a genuinely great guy he is.