Daniel is one very sick and very fortunate young man. His surgeon said he is lucky to be alive. Here is the latest:
Daniel should be coming out of recovery any minute. The surgery went well. It was supposed to last approximately two hours, but ended up only taking around 45 minutes, because everything went so smoothly. The surgeon made an incision from Daniel's sternum to his mid section. He was able to separate the liver from the abdomen by peeling it away, rather than having to cut them apart.
Daniel's abdomen was full of puss and dead liver tissue from the ruptured abscess, but the surgeon was able to clean everything up. He cleaned out the liver and inserted four drains with tubes that will allow any further infected fluid to drain from Daniel's liver to a receptacle outside his body. The poison had already spread to the point where Daniel's intestines were inflamed.
Daniel's situation is critical (due to the infection) and he will be in the hospital for up to two weeks. He will be in a lot of pain and will be nauseated for a while. However the scenario could not have gone better. The surgeon told Aubrey and Mendy that the abscess had been leaking for a week before it ruptured. That is why Daniel has been feeling sick and in pain for the past week. The injection today (that was given to try and unclog the liver tube) ruptured the abscess while Daniel was at the hospital. Then the operating room miraculously opened up at 5 pm today (which is very unusual) and because Daniel had not felt like eating since yesterday (and thus had no undigested food in his stomach) he was able to be taken immediately to surgery.
The surgeon was Dr. Morris, who has been one of the two team leaders of Daniel's trauma team from the beginning. This was the last day of his five day rotation and he was pleased he was available to perform the surgery, since he has been invested in Daniel's care and recovery from the beginning. He knows the history of the accident and is completely familiar with Daniel's medical care and progress since the accident.
The relief in Aubrey's voice was obvious when he called to report on how the surgery went. We are all very grateful Daniel was able to be taken to surgery so quickly and that it all turned out well. Thank you all so much for your faith and prayers.
Daniel has 3 or 4 less extensive surgeries ahead of him (that had already been planned), but those have been postponed until he recovers from this emergency surgery. We will continue to report on Daniel's progress on the blog.
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