Sunday morning, May 26th, around 9am Karl complained of chest pain while at home, and and was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital where the doctors found several blood clots in his right leg. Surgery was performed to remove these clots, around noon, and lasted roughly 2 hours.
To rule out any other issues, the doctors did scans of Karl's whole body and found he had an Ascending Aortic Aneurysm {general term for any swelling of the aorta artery to greater than 1.5 times normal, usually representing an underlying weakness in the wall of the aorta at that location}. This diagnosis requires treatment within 24 hours or it is fatal.
By 9:30pm Karl was taken into surgery #2 for a repair of the ascending aortic wall dissection. The repair consists of using a synthetic graft to repair the damaged portion of the artery. This was performed by Dr. Richard Perryman, whom all staff referred to as a hero and one of the best in Florida. We knew Karl was in good hands. Then it was a waiting game. Amelia, Jo, Katie, James and Penny spend 4.5 hours in the waiting room while Karl was in cardiac surgery. Needless to say it was a very trying for us all.
Due to the location of this repair, Dr. Perryman made a incision on the chest plate and down into the aortic region. To slow the blood flow, Karl was put into Deep Hypothermic Circulatory Arrest (DHCA) {a surgical technique that involves cooling the body of the patient and stopping blood circulation. It is used incardiac surgery to allow operation on the aortic arch and in neurosurgery to repair some brain aneurysms.} The procedure requires keeping the patient in a state of hibernation at 12 - 18 degrees Celsius with no breathing, heartbeat, or brain activity for up to one hour. Blood is drained from the body to eliminate blood pressure. Karl was only in DHCA for 23 minutes. The process to slowly warm the body back up can take an hour or more.
Dr. Perryman finally came in with good news of a successful surgery around 2am. We cried tears of joy and hugged one another tight. The doctor felt the procedure went very smoothly, and it did in fact save his life.
Karl was then moved to the Cardiac ICU unit where he is currently being monitored. He is still on a respirator and sedated from time to time. Only limited visits are allowed. There is a nurse with him at all times, making sure his vitals are where they need to be.
We now wait to see how the doctor's would like to proceed. We expect Karl to be in ICU for at least another few days and we will we keep you updated as we move forward.
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