More than 200 COVID-19 patients have received a lung transplant in the United States,...
Jesus looks out a window for the first time since he began physical therapy at Houston Methodist Hospital on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. “It’s so big out there,” he tells Perla. “I didn’t know what this place looked like.” She replied,"soon you'll be able to go outside."Two months ago, Jesus, a lawful permanent resident in the U.S., left Cotija for a job at a Louisiana natural gas plant while Perla and the kids stayed behind in Mexico. Now it’s up to Perla, a U.S.
Vital sign monitors beep through the silence. Perla turns to her husband, her eyes welling with tears. Her voice quivers. “We had so many plans.” Jesus would be lucky to see his 7-year-old daughter, Victoria, and 3-year-old son, Erick, reach his own age. A heightened risk of infection means he could not continue his job as a journeyman pipe insulator. The first year with new lungs would require constant medical attention from Perla, a stay-at-home mother who would be left to shoulder a massive financial burden.
Perla gives Jesus words of encouragement as he stops to rest at his usual stopping point on Sept. 22, 2021. On this day he continues to walk to the desk at the end of the hall.The symptoms hit Jesus gradually at first, then with sudden force. Gabriel calls Perla in Mexico and siblings in California. But when he insists on taking Jesus to the hospital, Jesus bucks.
Like the vast majority of those who suffer the worst consequences of the virus, Jesus is unvaccinated Jesus is sedated and connected to a mechanical ventilator that pushes air into his lungs through a tube lodged in his windpipe. Still, he does not improve after several days.. It draws oxygen-starved blood from a main artery, removes the carbon dioxide and pumps oxygenated blood back into the body.
“Don’t give up my love. Your family, our children and I need you so much and you have thousands of things to do, most of all to see your children grow. They love you with all their hearts and so do I.” It’s a choice the team confronts every day during the worsening COVID surge. And the knowledge that patients who don’t make the cut will likely die weighs on Masud.
As Masud and his team analyze their best ECMO candidates, Jesus meets three critical criteria: He is young and otherwise healthy with the damage isolated to the lungs.Medical staff wheel Jesus to a 10th-floor COVID-surge unit, to a room along a hallway with a grim moniker: ECMO alley. While the older population largely took advantage of vaccine availability in early 2021, young people are dragging their feetThe sickest ones often suffer from prolonged COVID pneumonia, which, if left untreated, can lead to severe scarring that lingers well beyond the COVID infection. In Jesus’ case, the pneumonia became so relentless that it caused permanent and widespread scarring, essentially transforming his lungs into nothing more than shells.
A medical team, including critical care physicians, nurses, and an ECMO specialist gather to discuss the medical condition of COVID patients battling for their lives on ECMO alley at Houston Methodist Hospital’s intensive care unit.Immobilized on the machine, the strength through which Jesus supported himself and his family — muscles that first budded during long, hard summers harvesting sugarcane on his ranch in Cotija — disappears completely.
Huang reminds himself to be patient. In his 16 years in critical care, he’s never dealt with this many young people who need extended ECMO treatment, and it’s forcing him to learn more about the amount of abuse the human body can take. “One more day of this is one day closer to getting out,” she says, her long black hair draped in a ponytail over her shoulder. Jesus nods and stares at his running shoes.
He grips the handlebars of a standing frame — a mechanism that will help him stand and stay balanced. He’s done this before. He started walking last week, after a brief bout with a bacterial infection, but made it only 20 feet outside of his room. Today, he has bigger plans.“As far as I can make it,” he mutters into his mask.
Gabriel is angry and confused. He remembers texting his supervisor about Jesus’ positive test in July. He knows social or financial factors often hold up the process, but Jesus is among his most physically capable candidates. Doesn’t he deserve a shot at the American dream that called him to that Louisiana factory in the first place?Jesus is placed on a hold, meaning he won’t be active on the transplant list until the insurance issues are resolved.
Perla shows her happiness around Jesus, but inside, she tries to control her excitement. More challenges lie ahead. “Soon, you’ll be able to go outside,” Perla says. “If you continue how you’re going, you’ll be there.”Jesus high-fives nurses as he is wheeled off to the operating room by the surgical team at Houston Methodist Hospital.Jesus Ceja Ceja weeps uncontrollably as Houston Methodist Hospital music therapist Elizabeth Laguaite croons a Spanish-language song about miracles.
His wife, Perla Munguia Ceja, sits at his bedside, stroking his forearm. A muted Telemundo reports the “coldest day so far this year,” a cloudy 55 degrees. They are emotional, but faith and patience calm their nerves.Six floors below them, in a quiet surgical lounge, Dr. Erik Eddie Suarez, the hospital’s 47-year-old surgical program director of heart and lung transplantation, tries to relax before Jesus’ surgery, slowly eating a yogurt and thumbing through the news on his phone.
After meeting the requirements to earn a spot on the national organ waiting list, he works to build strength for his next hurdle: matching with a donor. He becomes too sick for a transplant, and he is inactivated from the waitlist he worked so hard to reach. Doubt stalks a demoralized Jesus and Perla, who wonder: How much longer will this fight continue?
Jesus’ siblings worry, too. His oldest brother, Gabriel, has not seen him in person since Jesus first entered the Baytown ICU. But on Oct. 16, Gabriel takes time off from his job at a natural gas plant, where the brothers worked together until Jesus’ COVID diagnosis, to visit Jesus. In early 2020, surgical and critical care specialists at Methodist considered removing COVID patients from the machine after two to three weeks if they did not improve. Before the pandemic, most people either recovered or died within that time frame, so doctors thought it was futile to keep someone plugged in longer.
After a week of steady antibiotics, the bacteria clears from his blood, and he is reactivated on the waitlist. Perla arrives at the hospital around 8 p.m. to fill out paperwork with Jesus. The coordinators explain how the recovery process will work but leave out the donor’s identity, which is heavily guarded information during lung transplants. Jesus can learn the person’s identity only after the surgery, through a careful process facilitated by the hospital and the donor’s organ procurement organization, if Jesus and the donor’s family want to know.
Last-minute problems halt the transplant process in roughly 15 percent of matches. When candidates are notified of a match, but ultimately never receive the lungs, it’s known as a “dry run.” It’s a relatively routine part of Suarez’s job, yet he can’t help but feel deflated for Jesus, who may not have time for another opportunity.
Suarez and another transplant surgeon, Dr. Ray Chihara, rush to connect the patient to ECMO. In unison, the surgeons quickly navigate guide wires, then ECMO tubes, into each of the man’s femoral arteries in the upper thigh.“Is that me?” Suarez asks the room buzzing with hurried nurses and ECMO operators.Suarez is awaiting a call from the retrieval team with information about the lungs Jesus matched with hours earlier.
The surgeon slides his scalpel from armpit to armpit, tracing the line he drew with a black marker, curving underneath each of Jesus’ pectorals and between his ribs. He trades his scalpel for an electric pen, which he uses to cut and cauterize the thicker layers of fat, muscle and bone that conceal Jesus’ organs. The pungent smell of burning flesh overwhelms the room, as Jesus’ chest creeps open like the hood of a car.
The song “comethru” by Jeremy Zucker plays as Suarez operates in Jesus’ half-empty chest, cauterizing blood vessels to prevent further bleeding. Dr. Erik Suarez, left, and assistant thoracic surgeon Ray Chihara, right, attach the right donor lung to Jesus' chest by suturing the airway and pulmonary arteries back together.Dr. Erik Suarez, left, and assistant thoracic surgeon Ray Chihara, right, prepare to attach the right donor lung to Jesus’ airway and pulmonary arteries. Working in Jesus' half-empty chest, the surgeons temporarily close off exposed arteries to prevent major blood loss.
Brasil Últimas Notícias, Brasil Manchetes
Similar News:Você também pode ler notícias semelhantes a esta que coletamos de outras fontes de notícias.
Biden administration says it has shipped out 200 million free COVID-19 testsThe Biden administration announced Wednesday that it has shipped 200 million free COVID-19 tests to homes across the country.
Consulte Mais informação »
Child Covid-19 hospitalizations rose amid Omicron, especially among children too young to be vaccinatedCovid-19 hospitalization rates among children increased as Omicron replaced Delta as the predominant coronavirus variant in the United States, especially among those under 5, who are not eligible to be vaccinated, according to a study published Tuesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Consulte Mais informação »
COVID-19 Robbed Me of the Joys of Teaching'I thought remote instruction during the pandemic would be the worst of it. I was wrong.'
Consulte Mais informação »
37% of COVID Patients Lose Sense of Taste, Study SaysAbout four in 10 COVID patients have some sort of taste loss, according to a new study.
Consulte Mais informação »
Assemblyman Kevin Kiley explains Gavin Newsom's COVID policies have failed California -SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – Newsom just announced he’s extending his school mask mandate as almost every other state has ended theirs. This will be widely ignored throughout California. Berkeley released an article “Festering problems plaguing the state are weighing down Newsom’s standing with voters, as concerns about Covid recede” brutally saying Newsom is not doing to great job addressing concerns...
Consulte Mais informação »
How Much Did The Government's Free COVID Tests Cost The Taxpayers?Abbott wouldn't say how much they were paid per test. CBS 2 got a similar stonewall from the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Army.
Consulte Mais informação »