| Joe Perez |
08-31-2008 12:30 AM |
They're fairly sensitive about meeting the donor family apparently. It's their choice if they want to see us, not the other way around. We really only got the very basics- male, 18 years old, head trauma resulting in death at around midnight wed/thurs. Kept the body alive on a machine until everything was ready in the OR, then parted him out. Kinda freaky...
Things are still fairly tense, but after being in an induced coma and on a respirator since Thursday evening, this afternoon they woke her up, removed the breathing tube, and she got to take her first breath unassisted on the new lungs. Apparently they work. Her O2 sat is just sitting there at 100%, which is territory her body hasn't seen in a decade. And even lying there unconscious in ICU with tubes and bandages everywhere, the goth complexion is gone and she actually has color- she's been pale as a ghost for years.
She's still in a boatload of pain so they're got her pretty well doped up to the point where coherence is a hit or miss proposition. Not sure how much she'll remember of all this afterwards. Still on a nasogastric tube as well since she can't really swallow (or even sit up for that matter), but for now, the fact that things haven't yet gone totally to shit is a good sign, I suppose.
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