Lily Thornton

Initially Lily visited the urgent care on Monday (10/ 16) for a stomach virus. The doctors gave Lily some antibiotics and sent her home that day. By Tuesday (10/17)Lily's condition had escalated to the point where she could barely move, and was rushed to the emergency room. By Thursday(10/18) Lily's heart and lungs were failing and she needed life saving surgery to put her on an ECMO machine which would pump her heart and lungs for her, providing her organs much needed rest.  While Lily had her surgery at Rex(10/18), they transferred her to UNC to receive more specialized cardio care. Despite responding quickly to the treatment at first, the doctors attempted a second surgery to insert a larger tube into her heart in order to circulate more blood throughout her body. Unfortunately Lily's ventricles were too small to support the larger tube, but she was placed on dialysis instead in an attempt to filter some of the toxins flowing through her body. She responded extremely well to dialysis, the color came back to her face and she appeared remarkably improved.  

Although her ECMO device saved her life, complications prevented blood from flowing to one of her legs. On Tuesday, (10/24) her leg was amputated below the knee to prevent further life threatening infections. We are grateful she is alive and  looking forward to the day she can return home.