Paul Widen

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On Thursday 2/23, Paul was in Racine with my Mom and Dad and wasn't feeling well all day.  Around 8:00 pm, he got up to go to the bathroom and passed out, hitting his head on the way down.  They called 911 and Paul was brought into the Emergency Room.  Paul had an extremely low blood pressure as well as very low hemoglobin levels, which pointed to internal bleeding.  After giving him LOTS of blood to get him stable enough, Paul was taken in for a procedure to see where the bleeding was coming from and it was determined that he was bleeding internally from his esophagus.  During this procedure, coils were put on varices of the esophagus to try and stop the bleeding.


Paul was then moved into the intensive care unit to keep an eye on the bleeding, as well as many other things.  It was determined at this point that Paul has Cirrhosis of his liver. Throughout the day on Friday, there was still some bleeding so he was taken in for a second procedure called TIPS, since his liver isn't functioning.  This procedure was to insert a shunt to create an artificial channel in his liver for blood to flow through.  This will help by putting less pressure on his varices (where he was bleeding from) and give the coils a chance to be successful.


Between myself (Megan), my parents and Ann, we will try to keep this as updated as we can.