A hard day for pregnancy hormones....

SJM1981

My husbands cousin had open heart surgery on Tuesday. She is 18 years old. She had had the surgery 10 years prior, and it was pretty much just a replacement for the 10 year old replacement valve. When they went in to replace the existing valve, they discovered another hole in her heart, which they did repair, but air ended up getting into her bloodstream, which led to brain bleeding and swelling. She had seizures all night and never woke up from surgery. I actually work in the hospital in St. Louis that is connected to the Children's hospital, so I was able to come over on a break to see her. It was heartbreaking. To see someone that young go in for a major, but totally routine surgery, and not come out of it, is a horrible thing to see. The surgeon said he had performed this surgery 440 times and this is the first patient he has lost. He was beside himself as well. When I got off work at 4, I walked over, and we all said our final goodbyes before she was taken down to get her organs harvested and taken off life support. I have never seen my husband cry that much or be that emotional. This poor little girl lost her dad when she was 10, and had already had multiple surgeries as a child. And now this family has to go through losing a child,grandchild,cousin, and sister. It scares me to death to think something like this could possibly happen to my child. Just a really hard emotional day....