June 12

 Brian is stable. His heart is starting to show signs of recovery. He is not ready to be changed over to the VV ECMO machine (the machine that only supports the lungs and not both the heart and lungs). They want to get him off of the AV ECMO machine so that his heart does not begin to weaken and rely on the machine. He is not yet stable enough to make this transition. The goal right now is to assess again whether his heart might be ready for this change on Monday. They have taken him off of the paralytic medications and are hoping that he will be able to be assessed for neurologic function very soon. His kidneys are looking the same at this point. His Tidal Volumes are ranging from 30's - mid 60's ML. With how sedated Brian is, this is to be expected. As he is less sedated, he should begin to have higher Tidal Volumes. Here are a few notable improvements over the past day: His bilirubin number at one point was 11.5. Now it is at 6.6 (1.2 is normal, 2 would be on the higher end of normal), so 6.6 is heading in the right direction. His liver enzymes are at 1,100. A few days ago, his liver enzymes were at 2,800 (normal would be in the 30s-40s). Once again, he is heading in the right direction. He is still considered extremely critical and will be for some but we are happy to see some positive numbers!