(Trigger Warning – choking)
Early Friday morning, Olivia suffered an airway failure and a respiratory arrest. She is currently awake, alert and stable in the Medical ICU at Boston Children’s Hospital, and is being kept for observation until next week. Olivia is returning to the MICU just one day after being discharged – she was monitored Wednesday night for respiratory distress. The details of the episode are difficult to process, but this is what we can share:
At around 1:30 AM on Friday, Becky woke up for a routine diaper change. Becky noticed Olivia was struggling to breathe, so we paged her pulmonologist who recommended we bring her to the emergency department at BCH. While we began to pack up Olivia’s supplies for the ride to Boston, her condition deteriorated dramatically, and she began gasping for air. At this point, Max called 911, and Becky began zipping around the room to prepare for an emergency trach change. As the call was connected to the dispatcher, Olivia stopped breathing entirely. Her face turned from pale to blue, and her monitor was indicating she was in serious trouble. Max and Becky alternated giving CPR for about five minutes, after which Olivia began to show signs of consciousness, but was still not breathing. First responders then arrived at Olivia’s room while Max and Becky completed the trach change. The old trach was fully plugged and soaked in blood. The room let out a large sigh of relief when the new trach went in and Olivia was able to breathe again.
Once her airway was restored, Olivia recovered very quickly, and began acting like her usual self. We placed her back on the ventilator and increased her oxygen, and she was transported to the nearest hospital, Lowell General. Olivia was eventually transported and is now being monitored in the BCH Medical ICU in Boston for observation where she is anticipated to remain until just before Thanksgiving. During her stay, she will complete her scheduled “triple scope” procedure, and Becky and Max will be actively working to achieve 100% night nursing coverage.
Our girl is so complex, that when emergency services arrived, they deferred to us. It is terrifying to realize how alone we are in a situation like this.
Olivia is alive because we learned CPR. Because @franciscanchildrens required we learn it before we could take our baby home.
Family, friends – we urge you to be trained in CPR. We did not want to ever have to use it, but to not have had the knowledge would have been devastating. There is no way to describe how it feels to do chest compressions to your 14 lb baby, but we are beyond grateful to say she seems ok. We are wrecked, but that incredible baby is still smiling. Our strong girl is making the staff smile at BCH, and helping our hearts heal.
Check out https://www.cfefitness.com/first-aid-cpr-aed-certification/ for a local class, or search for an American Red Cross class near you.
She is making our hearts 💕 feel a little better too. So glad they are keeping her at Children’s.