Where to start ????   First thing we would like to thank everyone for all the prayers and positive thoughts sent to Lauren.  To be honest, it is a miracle Lauren is here with us.  I cannot sugar coat this one.  Lauren was not expected to survive.  Her heart went into failure for no reason.  If we didn’t get her to Boston as fast as we did, I would not be writing this.  I cannot thank the emt’s that drove us here. OMG, the driver’s name I remember was Chris.  When we arrived here in Boston I remember saying to him “that was some bad ass driving”.  Lauren wants to source out who the emt’s were that got her to Boston and then thank them personally.

      Lauren was on a machine called ecmo that saved her life.

ECMO stands for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation. Extracorporeal means outside of the body. A membrane oxygenator is a piece of equipment which acts as a lung to deliver oxygen into the  blood. The ECMO circuit acts as an artificial heart and lung for the patient during ECMO therapy.

A person cannot be on this machine for long. A week or two only.  It is very risky to be placed on the ECMO, it has many side affects, bad ones…..but we had not choice in it.  If you are on the ECMO machine, chance of survival is very low.  When Lauren’s dr.’s would come in and say to Dean and I “I am so sorry”, I would remain in disbelief, this is not happening.

We contacted the family and everyone flew or drive in.  Our son Matt who is in the Army stationed in Arizona, my husband contacted the Red Cross to help with his leave. He was here the next day.   At one point Lauren was awake the dr. was explaining to Lauren what was going on, Lauren looked at him and said “Am I going to die?” dr. Neil just looked at Lauren and said “I don’t know we are doing everything to not make that happen”.  I just in and said “of course not, you are going to get stronger and we are walking out of this hospital together again”.  My son Mikey and his family would drive every day to Boston.  The rest of my family camped out in the family room on couches.

At this time right now, it all seems like a blur to me.  I remember sitting by myself and in my head I was planning Lauren’s, well I can’t say it but, you know what I mean.

That’s in the past now, we are out of ICU and Lauren is getting stronger and stronger.  The dr’s. are calling her a miracle.  Lauren started to get better as fast as she became sick.  I believe it is the power of prayer it worked.  They are still at some point scratching their heads as to what happened.  With that said………………….

Today we are starting to make plans of going to a rehab facility.  Lauren has had so many different rejection meds that they help her heart but weaken her muscles.  So she needs to start all over again.  Right now Lauren is learning how to stand.  That is how weak she is now.  We have requested an acute rehabilitation facility close to home.  I will know more later on in the day.

From our family, we cannot thank everyone enough for all the love, support and prayers.  Also to our wonderful neighbors who have been helping in taking care of our crazy Kooper, yard and pool.  Thank you we love you guys very much.

God Bless

Lynne, Dean & Lauren