clarification

Thank you to all. Prayer does and is working. My daughter Esther is somewhat stable at this time. Just to clarify, because things change and are somewhat hard to clarify especially when Rhonda and I are in near panic mode, she has not yet had surgery, but has undergone several different procedures to insert what are called catheters or IV's. A couple were initially placed in her umbilical vein and artery at UW hospital and she has since received a central line (IV that is literally floated up the blood vessels to the entrance of her heart) and was placed on what they call ECMO yesterday morning which is a partial lung and heart bypass requiring insertion of two large catheters (IV's) into her large blood vessels in her neck. When she was born she did very poorly and at one point received chest compressions for about 1minute. She has been on a breathing machine or respirator continually until they began ECMO yesterday morning. Her initial oxygen saturations (the percentage of oxygen her blood was absorbing through her lungs) was very poor 50's-occasional 80% mostly hanging in the upper 50's and mid 70%. During transport from UW to Seattle Children's Hospital they used a different respirator that found her saturations in the high 90's to 100% upon arrival and for the first approx 1 hour at children's. That first night saw many near catastrophic changes that found us making the decision to place her on ECMO which has very significant risks and very high percentages of poor outcomes. About an hour after Esther was placed on ECMO (after a very successful insertion and initial start) her heart stopped. There were around 30 doctors, specialists and surgeons at her side and tragedy was once again narrowly averted. She has now had a completely uneventful night, is hours away from her second full day of life, and I am awe struck by the power of prayer and intercession of the Holy spirit in our beautiful daughters life thus far. Know with confidence the God hears and answers prayer. He has shown us such favor and grace in this it is hard to imagine not knowing Christ in our trial. May God richly bless you all for your dedicated and persistent petition on behalf of Esther Frances Holtrop.