Smokey and I went to the ~50-bed regional hospital at oh-dark-30 this morning, expecting to have his right knee transformed into a bionic one. Tonight, he is heavily sedated in the ICU at the University of MN hospital because he coded in the OR while the surgeon was scrubbing in.
Note to everyone: if you are going to have a cardiac event, pick a time when you are surrounded by medical professionals in a good hospital.
He was revived and transported to Minneapolis. The medical protocol for someone who has been revived like this is to chill them to bring their cord temp down to 33 C degrees (91F) for 12-24 hours; this minimizes or prevents possible brain damage (I learned A LOT about medicine today) and to keep them well-sedated during this time to keep them comfortable. Tomorrow they will warm him up and wake him up and assess his condition.
The second reason to bring him to the U hospital (which is part of the same group as the original hospital) was because the U has a heart catheterization lab. Between the time he arrived at the U and we (Younger Son and I) got to talk to a doctor there, the cath lad had done an angiogram, found his coronary arteries to be 70-90% blocked, and put in four stents to widen them.
Prognosis is hopeful because he was revived so quickly and his vitals are good.
Younger Son was with me all day, Elder Son is flying in tomorrow. We will know more tomorrow. (It may be weird to post about this, but I feel like you are my friends. And friends are good to have at a time like this. )
