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Darby’s Story

Site created on June 12, 2014

It’s been 7 years since I last updated this site. Darby was 12 years old and had his 2nd open heart surgery. We are now just over a week away from him having his 3rd surgery. He will be having his pre op testing done on Tuesday and is scheduled for surgery on April 12.
The surgery will be the same as last time. Placement of a pulmonary artery and valve conduit.
I’ll update this site as there is news.

4/26/21
Here’s a quick update of the past 2 weeks:
Darby had some complications during surgery that required a second time on heart bypass after some bleeding was noticed where the top part of the pulmonary conduit was sewn into place. During the last hour of the surgery the anesthesiologist noticed that the IV in his left arm wasn’t flowing properly. He wasn’t able to check the arm due to the work being done on his heart. The IV had infiltrated and caused a lot swelling in his arm and loss of feeling for awhile in his finger tips.
After Darby had his breathing tube removed he had difficulty coughing and could speak only in a whisper. After some testing it was discovered that both of his vocal cords were not working. This is cause for concern, as it presents an issue with him being able to control his airway.
Darby also had some issues with a leaky lung. That required that his chest tubes stay in until yesterday.
We are looking at possibly being discharged tomorrow, and being sent to the U of M for vocal cord testing. He did have slight movement in his right vocal cord when they looked on Friday. He’s on a blood pressure medication that is being used off label to help him get vocal cord function back. It’s shown some positive results in adults.
That is the quick version of the past 2 weeks. Tim and I have both been able to be here at Children’s Hospital with him.

Newest Update

Journal entry by Carla Gamradt — Nov 18, 2021

This week Darby had follow up appointments with his cardiologist and also his ENT at the U of M. The big news is that his vocal cords are now fully functioning and his heart repair looks great. Darby seems like his is old self, he’s spent these last months healing and spending as much time in the woods as he can. On November 29th he starts school to become a Heavy Equipment Operator. He’s very ready to be on his own.

Hopefully there won’t be any big medical news concerning Darby for a long time. Thank you all for continuing to check in.

Read More of the journal titled "November 18, 2021"

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