Not responding to medications

Riley was put on several medications in an attempt to reduce his heart rate and increase his blood pressure (see previous post). His heart rate was up around 200, while his blood pressure was in the 40s at last check. However, he was not responding to medications. They were also getting ready to give him another unit of donor blood. It's my understanding that additional blood can make the heart rate fall, but I'm not sure why.

In the meantime, Dr. Karl gave us two options. One was to put him on a machine that is basically a heart/lung bypass machine (only his chest is closed) for a couple of days. It will hopefully give his heart a chance to recover from the elevated heart rate. Option two was to head immediately into the OR to reverse the Fontan (see previous post). We opted for choice one. We don't know how long it takes to set the machine up or how long before we'll know if it is having the desired effects. There is a chance that after a couple of days when they try to wean him off of the machine that his body will revert to where it was with the elevated heart rate and low blood pressure, which will also send us back to the OR.