Wanted to give you a Jamie update. I wish I had better news. But sadly, I do not. She’s not doing so well right now, and she needs your prayers more than ever.

Because Jamie is on a bypass machine that is oxygenating her blood for her, she must be on heparin to thin her blood. Because her blood is thinner than normal, she is especially prone to bleeding. Yesterday, she began to bleed quite a bit– from everywhere.

She has required 9 units of blood to keep her alive for the past 24 hours.

So, unfortunately, this means that the original plan is no longer an option. We can’t keep her on ECMO waiting for her heart to heal, because she has to come off the heparin. So, tomorrow, she will be moved to a bigger, better hospital, and her pediatric cardiologist (woe that such a thing is even necessary) will reverse as much as he can, in the attempt to put her heart back in a position to beat on its own with some assistance from automatic valves and pacemakers.

And once that happens, Jamie will be placed on a heart transplant list.

Jamie needs a new heart, and she needs it fast. There’s no telling how long her own heart will carry her, if in fact it even starts beating on its own again.

I can’t tell you what your thoughts and prayers mean to this family, and to me.

And to her:

It’s a hard position– that of waiting for a donor. Obviously you want your loved one to heal, to be the recipient of that most precious gift, a gift that makes all other things possible. But it means tragedy for another family.

A rock. A hard place.

In any case, your thoughts and prayers are welcome.