We Got a Call...

We almost lost Ella this morning.

We received a call at 4:02 am from the hospital saying that we need to get down there because Ella's status has changed. We quickly got up and ran out the door to our car.

Not knowing anything, the drive to the hospital left us with every thought imaginable running through our minds. We pulled into the parking garage at 4:14 am. We walked quickly past the security check in point and told him "We don't have time to check in, we just got a call about our daughter!--Our last name is Waechter!--She's in room 3706!" We entered the elevator and went up to the third floor. We walked into the PICU hall to what looked like a movie scene... Nurses, doctors, surgeons, respiratory therapists, everyone, surrounding Ella's room (10-12 people in all). The surgeon Dr. Nasirof approached us and said immediately, "She's alright now." I dropped to the floor and started crying. The nurses escorted us to the quiet room down the hall where the Dr. would tell us what happened. After a few minutes, Dr. Nasirof came in and told us the ventilator she was on switched out of a certain mode somehow seemingly on its own which caused the issue. That was all the surgeon said. 

We sat there, dumbfounded. The nurse came in and told us the ventilator malfunction would be "heavily investigated". She then asked if we needed anything and the first thing that came into mind was a breast pump. I hadn't pumped in a couple hours and on top of the emotional pain we were experiencing, I was experiencing physical pain too. Asking for that kind of thing lightened the mood a little.

Around 4:30am we were told that Ella was stable at that point and would be closely watched today and that a doctor would come explain more to us as soon as possible. In the meantime, there was a "spiritual chaplain" who was called due to standard protocol that came in and talked to us for about 15 minutes and then left. At some point we recalled a song we sing at our church called "He Will Hold Me Fast". I found it on my phone and we listened to it, finding comfort in the words and the knowledge of God's love, compassion and grace. We were antsy to hear about Ellas's condition but also felt God's overwhelming peace. Finally, after waiting for what seemed like ages to hear more about Ella, I walked out of the quiet room around 6:30am and towards her room. By this time, many of the people had left and there were two nurses, a doctor, and the respiratory therapist remaining. One of the nurses saw me standing outside of Ella's room and told me I could come in. I went to go get Matt from the quiet room and when we returned we talked with the doctor. We learned that Ella's heart rate dropped from her normal 160-something to 90-something around 3:42am. They had to do chest compressions for about 15 minutes to keep her heart beating and blood flowing through her little body. They figured out the drop in heart rate was due to the ventilator and switched it out with a different one.  He also told us that they would be monitoring her extra carefully today as they had been all night.

I was able to touch her little head and tell her I loved her. Then we felt like we should stay out of the way and decided to leave.

Thankfully, we prepared for something like this to happen when Eli was staying with us as my mom was in our room as well and stayed behind with him at the Ronald McDonald House. We also called the Waechters and texted my dad to let them know we were called and were going to the hospital.

While we were about to exit the hospital, Jerry and Linda walked in the doors. We all left together and came back to our room at the Ronald McDonald House.

Matt and I took a short nap after a while and received a cal around 10:45am that updated us on Ella's condition. The nurse told us that she has been stable since this morning but is taking on too many fluids still but they hope they are able to close the chest tomorrow.

Reflecting back on what we experienced this morning has made us very thankful for the Lord's hand in this all. Machines may fail, but He never does. He has the ultimate power over everything. We felt like we had just been in a dramatic movie, but praise the Lord she's ok. Matt and I talked about how we wouldn't believe it if someone would've told us five months ago we would experience this. So crazy.

We could've lost our baby girl this morning, but by God's grace we didn't. Thank you for your continued prayers. Please pray for Ella's fluid on-take levels to lessen and that they would be able to take her off more of the medicines.