Prayers for Evan's Little Friend

Please keep one of Evan's friends in your thoughts and prayers. He had to be air-lifted to Children's tonight because he choked on part of a peanut around 11:30 am today.

He coughed up what looked like all of the nut right after it happened, but the rest of the day he wouldn't eat anything or drink much and his mom noted he just wasn't acting like himself. I came over at 6 tonight to watch him while his mom went to a Stamping-up class. She was torn about whether to even go or take him to the ER for a chest x-ray. To me, he didn't seem to be acting that much different than normal (he just turned 2, and has some mommy-separation issues). I encouraged her to go out to her class and have fun. He was fine the hour I watched him. When she came back (early!), she decided to take him in just to get the reassurance everything was OK. Since her husband is out of town on a job, I went along for moral support.

The nurses got him checked in to the ER, and they put a pulse oximeter on him to check vitals. He just went crazy and threw a big fit. Afterwards, he started looking a little bluish, and his sats were in the mid 70s-low 80s (they should be 96%+). The started him on oxygen and took an chest x-ray. Evidently the nut was still down there, and got dislodged when he started crying. It occluded the airway of the entire left lung. Because he couldn't keep his sats up (and because they were going to have to airlift him to Children's), he ended up getting sedated and intubated. I left the hospital shortly after the helicopter landed. His oxygen levels were much better. As soon as he gets to Children's, a room and an ENT are waiting in the PICU. The ENT is confident they can scope him and remove the obstruction at the bedside (our local hospital doesn't have the specialists or the proper equipment). Dr. Oldham (Evan's pediatrician) was there in the ER.

It was an incredibly scary experience. I have to commend my friend on her bravery--she only broke down a couple of times and was very strong for her son. I also have to admire her for following her gut instinct--she knew something wasn't right. Had she not brough him in to the ER tonight, the obstruction could have happened in his sleep.

Evan's little friend is a tough, healthy kiddo. I feel in my heart he is going to pull through this just fine. But a few extra prayers never hurt anyone...

PS Evan came through his surgery with flying colors. He has a new set of tubes and some clean pearly whites.