Tuesday, September 20, 2022

My Older Brother

My older brother had a "cardiac event" yesterday -- his heart stopped beating. This is the brother that just moved up here to NWA Arkansas to help out his kid whose wife is pregnant. (Baby is due in early October.)

My SIL got his heart started again, doing CPR, and the ambulance and fire truck showed up fast. He's in the ICU now. They're doing something called hypothermic treatment, which is when they lower your body temperature down to 89 degrees and hold it there for 24 hours. This helps your heart to heal and somehow (they're not sure how) helps avoid brain damage.

They got him down to the target temp last night at midnight. In 24 hours, they'll start warming him up again.

I spent yesterday afternoon in the hospital with my SIL (who was my friend first -- we were best friends in high school and then she married my brother, so we've been friends since we were fifteen). Got home last night at nine o'clock and went to bed almost at once and just woke up, maybe half an hour ago. I feel like I was rode hard and put away wet, as they say in these parts.

We'll know more tomorrow.

7 comments:

nicoleandmaggie said...

OMG, that's terrifying. And your SIL is amazing.

Best wishes for a thorough and speedy recovery.

delagar said...

Thank you!

She really is -- she's a med tech, and our go-to for any medical questions.

Bev said...

So sorry to hear this! Holding you and your family in the light.

Bardiac said...

Utterly terrifying, indeed. I wish your Brother well, and give your SIL kudos for helping him with cpr!

delagar said...

Thank you both! And yes, we're very impressed with her!

Anonymous said...

So scdary. Even when done by an expert, CPS is an iffy proposition. Glad it worked!

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to say that I hope at this point, things are looking up.