Grair is out of surgery. The process took longer than Dr. Hammel would have liked, but the end result is more or less what would he expected.

Dr. Hammel was able to shrink the right artery (from 20 mm to 6 mm), find the left artery and reconnect and make larger, patch the hole and put in the new valve.

A packaging mistake from the valve harvesting company caused a delay and forced Grair to stay on the bypass machine for about an hour longer than Dr. Hammel would have liked. Therefore, Grair is likely to swell more, which means his chest is left open for a few days. Dr. Hammel will come back in a few days to close his chest.

When Grair’s heart was restarted, it beat at a normal rythm for about 30 minutes. Since then, it became irregular. This is likely because of stress from the heart fibers. Dr. Hammel has hooked up a pace maker to keep the rythm regular, but expects to be able to remove it after a few days.

Grair is currently getting hooked into the machines in the PICU, we haven’t been able to see him since surgery.

All of the expectations from the surgery seem to have come to fruition. We have no indication of major complecations at this time. The next step is to make sure Grair’s lungs can handle life on their own.