A New Chapter

April 8th 2010, 7 year old Joey Codoni went in for open-heart surgery. The surgeon performed the 3rd phase of three phases that take place on people who have HLHS, called the Fontan. All the details are explained below in "Joey's Story". Joey was born with half of a heart and this was his 3rd open-heart surgery.  Joey went into surgery happy and smiling because they gave him laughing gas and waited until he was asleep to give him any IV's. Around 1pm the surgery was done. Steve and Vicki had to wait until about 5pm to see Joey when he was taken to the 7th floor at UCSF, the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit. At 8:30 pm I got a message saying that Joey's stats were not stable and that his right lung was filling with fluid and he needed prayer. On April 9th around 5am Joey's lung had collapsed and he crashed. The medical staff resesitated him and he was taken back into the operating room. Steve and Vicki witnessed their baby crash and had to watch him head back to the OR. It was an emotional and confusing day for so many friends and family. The word spread like wild fire and literally, due to todays technology, there was people praying for Joey across the United States. Around 1pm Steve and Vicki were notified that the Dr. had to reverse the Fontan and Joey was placed on a heart and lung bypass machine, life support. He was placed on this machine so his little heart and ecspecially his lungs could heal and recover. It is unknown why his body could not handle the Fontan at that point in his life but his little lungs didn't react well to the surgery. Joey was not taken back to the PCICU until almost 6pm. His surgeon sat by his side in the operation room for hours making sure he was stable. The surgeon cancelled all surgeries scheduled in that operating room for the day and designated his day to Joey. Joey was slowly wheeled by the waiting room with at least 7 medical staff helping his bed roll smooth and keep all machines in place late that evening. Steve and Vicki were insured that Joey was "safe" that the heart lung bypass was full proof. They made a plan to try to take him off of the heart lung bypass on Monday. That meant three days of Joey unconscience with machines making his body work, his chest was left open with a thin layer of protection. We could see his little heart beating. Saturday and Sunday were quiet. Steve and Vicki tried to get sleep but obviously struggled to do so. Each day the medical staff x-rayed Joey's lungs checking for improvements and each day Joey showed improvement. Monday was an emotional roller-coaster. The electricity went out hospital wide and turned off Joey's bypass maching and the battery did not kick on like it was suppose to. So, the nurses had to manually begin compressions. The craziness and scare lasted about 10second and the battery kicked on. Around 10:30am the doctor clamped off Joey's bypass machine while he was still in the PCICU. He did it. Joey's little body did it. About 30 minutes later Joey was taken back to the operating room to remove all of the tubes and close his chest. A few hours later Joey was brought back to his little room in the PCICU and the recovery began from there. Steve or Vicki stayed by Joey's side every step of the way. Each day was a milestone. It started with taking his ventilator out, then he could start moving a little bit, everyday he improved and was moved into a regular room for only two nights and then he was allowed to go home. The Codoni's lived at UCSF for 2weeks. So, Joey is home. He is improving and getting stronger everyday. He is still on oxygen to let his lungs heal as much as possible. Everyone asks the same question.........now what. The surgery was not a success and the Fontan did not happen. At this point nobody but God knows what is next in Joey's journey. The doctors have mentioned trying again after they evaluate and determine what caused Joey's lungs to reject the Fontan. Right now everyone is happy to see Joey healing and improving and gettting strong.

I will update the blog as I hear what the next step will be in Joey's journey. The prayers for Joey pulled him and his family through the last month. Please continue to pray and love the Codoni's. They are an amazingly strong family.

The money that has been raised to help the Codoni's is only a fraction of what will be needed to help with medical expenses. Please support our efforts.