Cody’s Story
The First Miracle
Many of you are not aware of Cody’s first miracle… Cody was born with meconium in his lungs - essentially his first stool was in the embryonic fluid and it was passed into his lungs. When he came out, he was unable to breathe properly. Little Cody, just under 8lbs, was placed into an oxygen chamber, he was transferred form St. John’s to Santa Monica Hospital within hours. Cody’s condition worsened. He was air-lifted to yet another hospital - Huntington Memorial in Pasadena. It was here that Cody underwent ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation). Back in 1994, this was an experimental procedure and our last hope for his survival. Essentially, 2 tubes were placed into Cody’s neck, allowing the his blood to flow outside his body through one of the tubes and into a machine where his blood is oxygenated. The blood is then returned to his body through the other tube in his neck. The machine does the work, so the body can rest and heal and get rid of the stuff in his lungs. Cody was on the machine for 5 - 7 days (I can’t remember precisely). This is the reason for Cody’s scar on his neck and his large vein, which he tells everyone that it’s a slug that he tried to eat and it slid sideways. Cody made a remarkable recovery with the aid of ECMO and jumped into a normal life thereafter. It truly was a miracle.
We don’t believe there is any link between the ECMO, the leukemia, the collapse. It is possible that the trauma suffered may have been more detrimental because his main artery main not be functioning as properly as a normal person, but unlikely.
We are so thankful that we were blessed with Cody.
More later…