Day 345 - Another Disconnected Nightmare

December 10, 2021

Friday, December 10th, 2021

James had PT at 8am, but when she arrived at 8:15am James was not about it. We worked with him in his bed. Teaching him how to sit up and lie down on his own by rolling on his side and leaning on his arms.

Around 12:30am, Mom jumped up to the sound of the vent being disconnected. The loud train whistle started before the ventilator alarm even started beeping. She immediately grabbed his trach and started feeling each section until she felt something disconnected. There it was, she could feel the air swishing out at the end of the blue Tee adapter after the Y (you can see in the pictures). But the tubing was not there to reconnect.

It had happened again. This time Mom was again in the dark and could not find the new mobile light. It's great because it holds a charge but it's also always in a different place because you can put it anywhere. Unfortunately Mom could not find it had to make a quick decision to not continue looking for it and to walk around to the other side of the crib to turn on the nightlight lamp. Mom is screaming, "I can't see, I can't see" and Dad was very quick to be down the stairs. Mom found the circuit tubing laying on the ground and quicky connected it. However in the rush to reconnect she had it over the railing. So the circuit was now split between over and under the railing. We needed to do another disconnect to put it under. James was sleeping the whole time. This means that he did not pull it apart, it was the pressure from the ventilator that popped it off.

Mom was very emotional afterwards and could not get it together. Dad needed to comfort her but was seriously thinking she may need to go to the hospital. Mom's heart was beating out of her chest, it was probably a panic attack. This was the longest James had been disconnected.

After that ordeal there was no way Mom was going to sleep so she stayed up until 3am since that was the next alarm anyways to do his feed. Nurse was coming at 7am and PT at 8am so an exhausting day ahead!