Mums been in ICU for 14 weeks. 7 and a half weeks were on ECMO. She had so many complications with bleeds and clots etc which prolonged the weaning of ECMO. She came off ECMO a month ago and they said it would be a long and slow road to come off the ventilator as her lungs are so stiff but they also said that she could get stronger and breathing could get better and the gas exchange could improve. Last week we were hit with another blow and mum had pseudomonas in her lungs. They said they hoped that they had gotten the antibiotics onto it quickly enough and it appears they have. That consultant isn’t on this week and we have a new consultant who is basically saying that mums dying and they want to make her comfortable. We rushed to the hospital at 2am as they said she was failing as her c02 increased so dramatically. We sat by her bed for 24 hours, they said she wouldn’t wake up and would probably drift away. She woke up about 11pm the following night and has been wide awake ever since. She’s been breathing very quickly - but we knew to expect this while trying to get through this new infection. Her c02 has come back down a bit from the faster breathing.
They say that her lungs are so fibrotic and they don’t think she will make it. They say she can’t breathe. But then they also say “no one knows for sure”. How do you turn off life support when there’s still a glimmer of hope? They kept saying she just needed time to get stronger and now it’s as though times up. We want to give her the chance to get stronger.
Has anyone been in the situation where they were told a loved ones lungs were too stiff and scarred but they came through the other side ok?
