Wayne Burtness

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Wayne had a cardiac arrest around 4 am on Wednesday morning.  Sharon was with him and administered CPR, but he did not regain consciousness after the event.  The ambulance took him to St Cloud hospital where they performed theraputic hypothermia.  They  lowered his body tempature to 92 degrees for 24 hours, and then slowly rewarmed him for about 15 hours.  This was a really important process to help keep oxygen going to his brain. 


His body returned to normal tempature around 1 am on Friday morning.  He had a sedative and a paralytic to keep him asleep and still while he was cool. Once he was warm, they stopped the sedative and paralytic and all pain medication. Now we are waiting for him to wake up on his own. 


As of Saturday morning, he is still asleep.  The doctors say  it may take hours, days or even weeks for him to wake up. His body is trying to breathe on its own, but it isn't quite strong enough yet so he is on a ventilator.  The doctors were afraid his kidneys were injured, but his kidney function has been improving.  We have lots of reasons to hope.  His body is trying to breathe, he has had some involuntary reactions, a slight gag reflex, and his vitals are good.  These are all good things. For now, we wait.  He is not in the ICU, we have sitting area in his room and we visit, we talk to Wayne, we hope he can hear us.  


We will try to keep you all informed as we move forward.