Yih-Chun: The Last 10 Hours of Cece’s Life (Part 2)
A huge team crowded around her in the Trauma room. My recollection of this part is faint. There were many people working on Cece, and I've never been in a Trauma room, so I didn't know what they were doing. I was so cold and only had on shorts and a T-shirt, just as I was when I was working on the paper half an hour before. I felt so helpless as an army of medical professionals worked on Cece.
I helped make sure they knew her weight (12 pounds / 5.5 kg). They asked if she was in a rear-facing, properly installed car seat. She was— I had installed it, and I cinched her up earlier that week.
I texted Evelyn "They are working on an airway." It was 6:21pm. They tried to fit Cece with a cervical collar, but even their smallest cervical collar was far too large for her. They gave up on that. Still no pulse. First dose (of many) of epinephrine was called for and injected. This whole time they were working tirelessly on getting IV lines in and getting blood transfused, but time after time the attempts provided them less access than they needed.
Finally, at around 6:26pm, they got a pulse. Slowly they worked on increasing her blood pressure. Obviously there had been a hemorrhage, and we didn't know where. "73/44 bp they're still working on her" I told Evelyn at 6:29pm. They tried to put a line in through her right leg, but fluids started gushing out. They put in a pressure wrap. "All the fluids went to the leg they say." I texted. An X-ray showed up to verify the placement of the endotracheal tube. Later something happened with the left leg and they called for a tourniquet. “Was Cece going to lose a leg?” I feared.
We were told she was going to Peds ICU. They asked for an Arctic Sun temperature management system to cool her down in the Peds ICU (they told me that hypothermic treatment improved recovery for cardiac arrest), and ordered a CT head and neck for her. By 6:41pm they had her blood pressure up to 125/85, but couldn't get another line into her. At 6:54 they called for pressers to keep her blood pressure up. I remembered how Evelyn told me that by the time people are on pressers, their condition is quite severe.
On the way to the CT room I ran into Dr. Park. "What happened?" he asked. "Car accident," I replied. Dr. Park would later keep me updated on everyone else's injuries as I stayed with Cece.
Once they got her into the CT room, they threw me out. "There's a lot of radiation in this room, you can either come in here (control room) or out there (hallway)." Then "no, no, he can't be in the control room." Off to the hallway. While they scanned Cece, I checked on Evelyn, Annie, and Abby. Abby was so brave, in a shared patient room with just the social worker, with a huge bruise on her right shoulder, an obviously messed up right arm, and a crying patient across the drape from her, and she just hung in there like a champ. Annie looked like she was doing great too.
After I got back, I waited— they hadn't started the CT yet. Once the CT was finished, I got the news: serious brain injury, skull fracture, blood on the brain. They thought she might need a transfer. "Do you have a preference? St. Louis or Peoria?" Dr. Rosado-Barreras (the Peds ICU attending) asked me. I dragged her to find Evelyn to get Evelyn's opinion. Evelyn fought back tears as she said "Wherever she will get the best care." It was time to move Cece to the Peds ICU while they worked on her transfer.
Scary monitoring in the Peds ICU