Verna had an extremely difficult night as Massimo never actually settled. They tried several things to try to improve the situation but nothing seemed to work. By about 4 am Verna was very unhappy and eventually, after waking doctors and ward sisters and making quite a fuss, Massimo was transferred to PICU at 7.30 am.
It took the doctors and nurses on PICU 3 and a half hours to stabilise him as they could NOT get him ventilated. In the end they put him on an anaesthetic ventilator in the hope that the gases that they use to anaesthetise might help his wheeze and open his chest a little. This helped, but only temporarily.
At this point the consultant looking after him had enough time to come and have a chat with us she said that Massimo had had a “damn good attempt at dying” this morning. The levels of carbon dioxide in his blood were ludicrous and his PH level was “not really compatible with life”.
A little later, whilst fiddling and trying various things she realised that when she pushed on Massimo’s trachy the air entry into his lungs was better. The assumption then was that there is a granuloma (small lump of tissue) or something similar which has formed at the bottom of the tube which is blocking the flow of air.
Once stabilised and paralysed, he was still in a very delicate state and they were reluctant to wheel him down the corridor unless strictly necessary so one of the surgeons came to PICU to remove his hickman line. A little later the ENT Registrar came to do a flexible bronchoscopy and in so doing they found that the assumption was indeed correct and there is some tissue which is occluding over half the tube. This requires lasering to remove the tissue and currently the laser at SGH is broken. Various phone calls later, Massimo was accepted at GOS and a bed for him was found on PICU.
Tonight was also the Fruiterers Annual Banquet, a white tie affair held at Mansion House and we were due to attend. All day we were in a quandary about whether or not to go and, encouraged by the PICU SGH staff, we did go, leaving strict instructions to call us on our mobiles should anything happen and if and when Massimo was transferred if this happened this evening.
At 9.15 we were called to say that the retrieval people were there and had prepared Massimo for transfer. We agreed that we would meet Massimo at GOS as soon as our dinner was over. At 10.30 pm we popped in to see him. Our outfits got many a strange look and plenty of comment but most importantly Massimo had transferred with no problems. He was still stable and paralysed and they intend to keep him like this overnight. The ENT surgeon at GOS will come and see him tomorrow and from there make a plan.