For those of you who don't know who I am, I'm Devin's honorary Aunt Kristi. His mother Kim is my closest friend and my family in every way but blood. Devin is an amazing, funny young man with a heart of gold, and an incredible older brother. The amount of people who have reached out to his mother is proof of how very loved Devin is.

Devin was scheduled for surgery early Friday morning. The goal was to correct a narrowed artery. There were complications as Devin's previous surgery, (when he was a baby) had left a build up of calcium and scar tissue. They also had to remove the previous VSD patch they had put in, and replace it with a larger one. His heart doesn't have the elasticity and stretch of a normal heart which had its own complications as well. Surgery lasted almost twice as long as expected, he was on bypass for much longer than is ideal, but they were able to get the area cleared enough to allow for the larger tube. Devin was moved to recovery, then about an hour later around 9:30 PM we were allowed to see him.

Less than two hours after that Devin went into cardiac arrest. They had to perform CPR and resuscitate him for 30 minutes before he went back in for surgery. They had to replace the tube that was now narrowing on the other side of his heart, and repair a new small hole. At around 4 AM Saturday, they completed this surgery and he was back in recovery, but at this point they had decided to keep him open chested. They put him on ECMO to keep his blood circulating and oxygenated, and to help his heart and lungs so they could heal.

At around 7AM Saturday morning they found more narrowing in his arteries and placed a stent in his heart. Around 1:30 PM he was back in recovery. They did need to use a pacemaker to stabilize his heart, as the top and bottom were not beating in sync as they should. With all the time in cardiac arrest and all the time on bypass, there are concerns for his kidneys and his brain. His kidneys are working, not perfectly but not in the need of dialysis. Brain damage can take days to manifest, so they can't answer any of those questions just yet, but he is being monitored 24/7 by an amazing team of people. I don't think a single time we were there, there were less than 5 medical staff at his room.

Sunday Devin got to rest. They played him country music and put on a game of football. Still open heart, intubated and on both ECMO and a pacemaker. They did lessen the paralytic to see some movement, but not enough to truly wake him up. It's impossible to know whether he could hear us or not, but the way he seemed to squeeze fingers, and looked like he was trying to open his eyes, we believe on some level he knew we were there. They did have to put him back on the paralytic, too much movement isn't a good thing right now. Devin made it through the night still in critical condition, but thankfully stable.

Today, (Monday) they did a procedure to clear out some of the residual blood from his chest. He remained stable throughout the procedure, and they were able to turn off the ECMO. So far he's stable and his heart is beating on its own. Now their focus is on getting the swelling down and the water off his lungs, while continuing to monitor his kidneys and brain for signs of damage. Their hope is to be able to close his chest by Wednesday, and from there hopefully start the process of waking him up.

The doctors are saying even if everything stays perfectly right on track, Devin's in hospital road to recovery is at least a month long. Devin is at Boston Children's Hospital, two hours from home. Kim has remained by his side and she has no intention of going anywhere right now. Being by his side means she currently has no income coming in. Staying close to the hospital is expensive and the costs are adding up quickly. Plus there are still bills to pay and travel costs, it can all be a bit overwhelming. Before the surgery, Devin applied for and was denied TDI; open heart surgery doesn't qualify. He won't have any income for an unknown amount of time. I'm hoping with this go fund me we can help lessen some of this family's burden. Anything helps and is beyond appreciated. From her family and from mine, Thank you.