Al Sanchez

This website will be used to provide status updates on Al’s recovery from his LVAD surgery.    

Thank you for caring and all of your prayers.   This will help us streamline communications and make things a little easier for Terri.   

Al's surgery was almost 11 hours long!   Toward the end of his surgery, he was given FFP (Fresh Frozen Plasma) which helps clot his blood from the surgical cuts.  They had to do more cutting than anticipated due to an excessive amount of scar tissue from his prior surgeries.   Part of Al's lungs were attached to his chest cavity and they had to cut out part of his lungs.      Al had a severe allergic reaction to the FFP.  Al's lungs filled with fluid and they had to put him on an ecmo (life support).   They were unable to stop the bleeding from the surgery without the FFP. They were unable to give him oxygen.   The doctors worked feverishly until they got him as stable as possible.   The surgeons left his wounds open and packed with gauze overnight hoping for a miracle (well, doctors don't "hope for miracles" but we all were!).    We were told if they couldn't stop the bleeding, if his lungs wouldn't drain, and if they couldn't get him off the ecmo machine then he was expected to pass.  The doctors told Terri today he had a 70% chance of passing away last night.    Al continued to fight.  This morning the doctors observed signs of improvement.  The doctors had also preemptively placed a port for dialysis anticipating issues with his one kidney.  They did not need to start dialysis.     

Terri went to see Al today and he responded to her voice and tried to open one of his eyes.  Nurses observed Al move his toes.   However, he has not yet woken up despite being off the sedation since 10 pm last night.   The surgeon decided to go ahead and take him back into surgery around 3 pm today.   Keep praying.   There are risks of going back in too soon and risks of waiting to go back in.   We are hoping the surgeons are successful at transitioning him off life support this evening.  We are hoping his lungs continue to heal and the bleeding stops. 

All of your support is so appreciated.   We (Al's family) are so appreciative of Al and Terri's awesome friends who are such a blessing in our parents lives.  Thank you for each and every one of you and everything you do for them.