The infection in Gage's blood has caused his health to decline so much so that they have now put him on the ECMO machine. It is responsible for doing the work of his heart and lungs by taking the blood from his body and resupplying the necessary oxygen while removing the CO2 waste from his cells. His time on ECMO is limited to only a few weeks from what we were told.
The goal is to help him overcome the limitations of his heart and lungs due to the infection and essentially stabilize while doctors try to come up with a way to beat his infection. As he begins to overcome his infection, his doctors have agreed that he will need to go back in for a valve replacement. I truly believe he may have had a chance at recovering well enough with his valve repair but it seems that this infection has taken that chance from him.
They haven't yet stated whether he'll receive the Melody Valve or not. For now, the focus is on beating this bacterial infection identified as Stenotrophomonas Maltophilia. His latest blood tests seem to have finally come up negative however it has only been about 24 hours. They continue to test his blood regularly. We hope and pray that we no longer see positive lab results.
