Our First Emergency Room Visit
Karlie had been home for just 6 days before we had our first emergency room visit. It was a nightmare situation but thanks to our training and Sterling’s quick action, everything turned out okay.
We were getting Karlie ready for bed one evening, just having a good time and making sure she was cozy and happy. Sterling had just held her and rocked her for a while so she was nice and sleepy. We laid her down in her crib and adjusted her tubing as necessary. Karlie’s ventilator has a water heater that helps provide heat and moisture to her lungs. It’s great to make sure she doesn’t dry out, but one downfall of the specific heater we had was water buildup in the tubing. We always had to disconnect Karlie’s vent tube from her trach and dump out any water. It was so annoying and we often didn’t realize there was water buildup. As we were getting Karlie all situated in bed, one slight adjustment of Karlie’s trach caused a waterfall of water to go straight down her trach! We had no idea there was that much water in the tubing and had to act fast. She immediately starting silently screaming while we hurried to suction her. We were able to get some water out but it was too late. She started turning purple and went limp so we knew we had to get that trach out immediately and resuscitate her. We called 911 immediately and Sterling performed CPR while I got her Ambu bag. Thankfully she came back quickly, so once she was conscious I used the Ambu bag to breathe for her and give her some oxygen. Paramedics arrived just a few minutes later and tried to help us get a new trach put in once Karlie was a bit more stable. I was laser focused on her and just kept breathing for her and got her oxygen back up to 100%. One of the paramedics tried to get a new trach put in but was not successful. We then tried to put a smaller size trach in but that was also unsuccessful. We had to get her to the ER so Sterling took over with the Ambu bag and breathed for her in the ambulance the entire way to the hospital. I stayed behind and gathered everything we would need and then sped to the hospital myself. I was in panic mode so I drove fast and arrived shortly after the ambulance dropped Karlie off in the ER.
They tried to put a new trach in at the ER and they were unsuccessful again. What they ended up doing was putting a breathing tube down Karlie’s stoma and eventually attaching that to her ventilator. It looked scary and horribly uncomfortable but there weren’t many options. It took a while for Karlie to remain stable and calm down but once she did she was able to fall asleep. Sterling had been so stoic and strong the whole time but once everyone left the room he just turned to me and cried. He had been in fight mode and couldn’t believe what we had just experienced and had to do for our baby. He didn’t hesitate for a second when she needed CPR. He did everything exactly like we were taught and he saved Karlie’s life. After a few hours in the ER, Karlie’s ENT arrived and was able to successfully put in a new trach. They kept us a little longer to make sure she was stable and then let us take her home around 2 am. We were exhausted and traumatized and just ready to take her home.
We told our medical supply company about what happened and they brought us a new water heater that supposedly did not have the water buildup issue. We also reached out to other trach/ventilator parents for advice to ensure something like that never happened again. We got a cover for Karlie’s tubing because it’s less likely to accumulate water inside if the tubing is kept warm and one consistent temperature. When Karlie was in her crib we made sure her ventilator was always at the foot of the bed and positioned the tubing in a way that water could never get to her. All of this worked because we never had an issue with water buildup again.
When we were doing our emergency training before taking Karlie home from the NICU I asked so many questions because I wanted to be fully prepared. I wanted to know exactly what to do in case we were to find ourselves in an emergency situation. Our instructor assured us it was very unlikely but I knew with our luck something was bound to happen. I am so thankful for that training because we were able to save our baby’s life. I will never forget the sight of her purple lifeless body. It was an image I couldn’t get out of my head for weeks. It was traumatizing and left us both scarred and on high alert even more than before.
