Surgery Miracles

As promised, I would like to share the story of how God worked on Thursday evening, November 17.  That was the night when Blake was whisked away from us for an emergency surgery.  The previous day he had undergone the original operation to remove a melon sized Wilms tumor growing on his right kidney, as well as the kidney itself.  The procedure was a success, but had caused a complication.

The vein that removes blood from the healthy left kidney had been damaged during the tumor removal.  Surgeons repaired it with a few stitches before closing him up.  Throughout the day that followed, Blake's urine production continually decreased.  This led the doctors to believe that something had gone wrong with that vein.

A vascular surgeon was called over from the OSU hospital.  He stopped by a few days after the surgery to check on Blake and share the Operating Room story.  This is what he reported,

As soon as Blake's incision was reopened, it was apparent that the kidney was purple and swollen three times its usual size.  A blood clot had formed at the site of the stitched up vein.  Blood was flowing into the kidney, only to remain trapped inside,

The surgical team set about removing the clot, which was very hard at that point.  First, they tried drawing it out with a catheter.  When that failed, they poked, prodded, even smacked it repeatedly with their fingers.  The clot would not budge.  After many attempts everyone stood back, racking their brains for a solution.  The surgeons were reluctant to give up, knowing that would mean losing the kidney, dialysis, and need of a transplant.

Then suddenly the clot broke loose - all on it's own!  (At this point in the story I said, "Thank God!"  To which the surgeon agreed it was divine intervention.)  He went on to share how he began to repair the vein, creating a new pathway and patching the broken vein in a way he had never done before.  As he was working, a younger doctor asked what he was doing.  Our surgeon replied, "I don't know."  Praise God for guiding the hands of this very gifted doctor!

He also shared that, once the repair was in place, the kidney immediately began to shrink and turn pink.  As he sat with us relaying all of these details, my heart sang with praise.  I thank God for protecting my son, for miraculously removing that clot and for guiding the doctor's hands.  Prayers that were lifted fervently across the globe, touched the heart of God and changed my son's future.  What a powerful story my boy now holds.