Supporting Jack

Jack turns four months old next week.

On April 19th, Jack went and was discharged from the ER due to choking on mucus from a cold.

Within 24 hours, Jack was back in the ER and waiting to be airlifted to a bigger hospital to support his needs. An IV for meds was drilled into his bone and with a heart rate that was too fast, he had his heart shocked to get it back to a stable position. Even before they were airlifted, Jack had to be shocked again due to his pulse stopping. A breathing tube was inserted so his little body didn't have to work as hard. They were finally able to fly to Boston.

Testing positive for the flu, additional tests were run to find that part of Jack's heart was enlarged. Immediately, Jack was being assessed and cared for by the Cardiac PICU at Boston Children's Hospital, and both Jim and Amanda were told to prepare for the worst.

Jack is a mini warrior and again was stabilized with an ECMO in his neck. ECMO stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The ECMO machine is similar to the heart-lung bypass machine used in open-heart surgery. It pumps and oxygenates a patient's blood outside the body, allowing the heart and lungs to rest. This allowed for both his heart and lungs to rest. For the rest of Thursday night, everyone rallied around Jack to try and determine the cause of all of this.

After continued tests on Friday, Jack went into surgery. There was blood in his chest cavity and diaphragm. They needed to move the ECMO into his heart and not his neck. That means they need to open up his chest cavity to have access to his heart. This is how it is usually done, but because of the severity of Thursday night's situation, it was quicker to go through the neck. During the surgery, the medical team removed the blood and found the leak. It was a puncture from when they inserted the needle to move some of the fluid over. Since Jack's heart was so inflamed, parts were overlapping and the needle punctured the vein. With this surgery, they were able to repair the vein and stop the blood from leaking. A drain was added to his belly and groin to help drain all the excess fluid. All of us rooting for warrior Jack are optimistic.

Right now we are still waiting on answers for the cause of all of this, and depending on what it could be, means several different treatment options; ranging from medication to a full heart transplant.

Through all the unknown, our goal is to help alleviate some of the medical bills that have already begun to rack up for Jack’s family. If you can donate, share, send love, and prayers to the Bohigian family, we would be forever grateful.

As we know more, we will be sure to update you.

Thank you for rooting for our mini warrior, Jack.