Joseph update 5/27/11

Joseph is now off dovutamine, epinephrine, and dopamine and his blood pressure is staying good.

He's taking two antibiotics but at this point they are just finishing the courses they started at check-in.  All tests for infection have come back negative

He's taking one antiviral.  They are waiting for the tests for viruses to come back still but told me it is extremely unlikely that he will have a virus at this point.

He is still on the high frequency ventilator.  The blended air they are sending him is around 35% and his oxygen saturations are staying together and in a good range.

Lung development is the next hurdle. The last echocardiogram showed his pulmonary blood pressure being near the same level as his systemic bp.  It should be 25 % of the systemic.  This is an indication that his lungs need some development. The way I understand this is that the alveoli in his lungs are not compliant enough and they are creating pressure on the pulmonary arteries through the lungs.  I'm being told that it is likely that the lung compliance will improve over the next days.  They are doing another echo in the morning.  In the meantime, they are putting nitric oxide into his air.  Nitric oxide relaxes the muscles in his pulmonary arteries and causes them to open more.