Surgery #3 - Saturday, June 21st

Taking advice from doctors and nurses, Dave and his family decided to proceed with the exploratory surgery. Dave was taken down to Pre-Op and prepped for surgery slightly before 4:00pm. Dave's family prayerfully waited in the waiting room. We received a call at 5:10pm saying they had started surgery. We had many, many people praying for Dave. That was encouraging. Thank you!
Throughout the evening, we received two other phone calls, saying that Dave was doing well, but it would be a while longer. Finally, 5 hours later at 10:15pm, two doctors came out of the operating room. Their faces were red, and it was very evident it had been a stressful surgery.
The doctors, explained what they had found:

• A severed bile duct. Solution: they placed a T stint and another drain tube on Dave's left side to catch the leaking bile. Another surgery will be necessary to permanently fix the problem.
  
  
• A significant tear in the portal vein. Solution: they placed a semi-synthetic patch over the tear to stop any further internal bleeding.



• A blood clot in the hepatic artery. Solution: they snipped the hepatic artery so the blood clot would not be pushed into the liver.

The doctors had not expected to find so many problems and it was quite a shock to our family. Because of the trauma, Dave had developed a very severe case of pancreatitis. It was a very, very difficult surgery. During the surgery, Dave received 10 pints of blood. The doctors were not too optimistic. They said Dave's vitals were good, but he had a very long road ahead of him. Dr Grant, a top liver transplant surgeon, said that because of the injuries to the hepatic artery and portal vein, Dave runs the risk of losing one or both sides of his liver. Dr Grant said she was concerned about more blood clots forming and also insufficient blood flow to and from the liver. If his liver does die, he would be put on a liver transplant waiting list. The positive news is that the liver regenerates itself so, it would be okay if one side of Dave's liver did die. And, if Dave would need a liver transplant, he could receive half of a relatives. The doctors said that because of the seriousness of the surgery and the extent of his injuries, another surgery on Sunday or Monday would be necessary to check everything and make adjustments.
Dave returned to his room in ICU and rested for the night. Dave was completely sedated and the doctors also gave him medicine to paralyze his limbs so he could rest and his body could heal. It was difficult to see him hooked up to a ventilator and so many more tubes and monitors, but comforting to know he was actually resting for the first time in days and his body was hopefully starting to heal. It was a short night for the family and many friends as they spent much time in prayer. Thank you to all the prayer warriors!