synopsis of my first update of 6/23/09

Some of you know what is going on, some know some details, some know nothing so I am going to give a quick synopsis to see if I can update everyone with what we know.

Monday morning at approx 4 am Eric went to the gym to workout before going to work. sometime around 6:30 am a man went into the locker room and saw Eric standing against the wall gasping for breath. (We now know this man was Jerry Epperson, who has know Eric for quite a while at the gym from their early morning workouts, THANK YOU JERRY! Your quick thinking has made all of the difference for us here!)He went to yell at the front desk to call 911 and as he did so Eric fell to the ground. He was still breathing at the time but it was labored. Soon after he stopped breathing and CPR was started on him by two memebers of the gym. One was a doctor. By all accounts this happened quickly. They continued CPR until the paramedics arrived within minutes. They defibbed him 4 times there to revive him and then took him to the hospital. When he got to the hospital they did a cadiac cath. and determined that his arteries and valves are clear. The problem with his heart seems to be "electrical" because of the time he spent down during CPR they decided to do cooling therapy on him. They lowered his body temperature to 31.5 celsius over a 24 hour period during this time they gave him sedatives and paralytics so that he would not shiver or wake up while he was packed in ice. Starting at 9:30 am this morning, they started bringing his body temperature back up to 36.5 celsius over a 12 hour period. At 8 am they gave him the last dose of paralytics, and continued to warm him. His temperature has come up successfully, however it continued to go up a little past 36.5 so they are currently cooling his a little. They suspect he is running a low grade fever because either of the cooling therapy or because he has some fluid in his lungs. They have started to give him antibiotics in hopes that they will clear up the fluid. They took him for a CAT scan and the doctor told us that it looks normal. There do not apear to be any oxygen deprived areas. This was good news. However as of this evening he has not woken up. They have suggested that best case scenario is that he wakes within the next 72 hours. The sooner the better. He is largely unresponsive. He is attempting to breath on his own but still in on the ventillator. He is now shivering and having some other involuntary movement, but nothing intentional. We are very hopeful and I hope this can answer some of your questions. I will update as I can, we are spending most of our time at the hospital in the iCU where phones are not allowed.Eric is an amazing person and those that know him, love him, and they are many. Thank you all for your support and prayers, right now we are all depending on them.
Lesley