Feb. 17, 2018 – West Bend, WI – Since the original post two days ago about Josh Petty of West Bend and his battle with flu-like symptoms at Froedtert Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, there’s been requests for an update.
Below is the latest on Josh’s condition from his dad Dwayne. Links will follow to get you directly to the family’s page.
LAST UPDATE FROM DWAYNE PETTY Feb. 17, 2018 at 6:22 p.m.
Come on Josh, YOU GOT THIS. Well my earlier post was a little premature. The heart infection is an extremely serious issue. We are now in the bottom of the Ninth deep in the count. I am setting in Josh’s room with his Grandpa. We are only telling him that his heart is sick and we are going to fix it in the morning. I have explained that he is deep in the count and he needs to just keep swinging.
Step up and protect the plate. He is ready to do the work and like always he is up to the task. We are going to ware this infection out like we have so many pitchers in the past. We are going keep making it throw pitches and foul them off until it makes a mistake. When we get the pitch we like we will take him deep until they have to pull him out of the game.
I have no doubt he is up to the task. This boy can be “clutch” when it counts. I’ve seen it many times.
The procedure is relatively simple they tell me. ( YA ) We just go in and remove the infected valve. ( Tri-cuspid ) the infection is hopefully out. All the risk is post surgery complications from his weekend state. There are two many to talk about. They keep telling me his age and ability to come back from what should have already killed him twice makes them believe we have a chance.
( That honest doctor’s words ) people ask me how I’m writing this stuff. Well, staring at a wall or TV screen and not seeing anything is not going to make it go away.
If I am being real about it and thinking about my son, than it helps make it a little easier. There is nothing easy about it. My eyes are two dry desserts because at this moment there is no more fluid to flow. It can show up at any time. Surgery is around 7:30 tomorrow (Sunday). We won’t know anything until after noon.
He is being moved to the cardiac ICU any time. Much larger room and state of the art. His surgeon came to this hospital from the Mayo clinic and we are told he is tops in his field. He made a good first impression. Please, please, please pray for my son and this family because we need him back.
Come on Josh, You got this. One last thing Josh. If we can’t take him deep. You can always hit a dribbler and run it out. Get on first and then steel your ass home like I have seen you do a million times. Your choice. #YOUGOTTHIS
Click HERE for direct updates.
Posted on February 15, 2018
UPDATE from Josh‘s sister, Ashlee.
Well guys, in all honesty I’ve been reluctant to give a update because I wanted to make sure I had something positive to throw in there as well. And, for a while there we really didn’t have anything to cling to again. We started the day off waiting for Josh to wake up. He had been off of sedation meds since last night. He started waking up this morning. We went through a 30 minute period of enduring a extremely ticked off Josh. He wanted the tube out and he made it very clear that he didn’t want to wait on anyone to remove it. At that time he was responding to most commands but he also still seemed rather disoriented.
He was squeezing my hand like crazy during this time. When the Dr asked him to move his feet it did take him a couple times but we were clearly able to see both feet move once. The tube was then removed shortly after this. The tube was out for a short period of time before we found out Josh was pulling in CO2 as well as oxygen. During this time the CAT scan taken earlier was also pulled up and it became clear that there was more fluid in his lungs (pneumonia) than what there was the previous day.
So, all in all he was very quickly re intubated. During all this he was not given any additional sedation meds. The Dr ordered that Josh be hooked up to a EEG machine to monitor his brain activity because Josh is not responding to commands. And he is not sedated in any way at this time. I have seen him grimace and clench his eyes shut as the nurse does things that he isn’t crazy about.
But at this time he isn’t opening his eyes or squeezing our hands when we need him to. I’m not sure how to ask for any more out of you guys than what we already have, but we need the prayers continued. We need our prayer warriors at the front line ready for battle!! We couldn’t have made it this far without you guys! You keep us going! You are giving us the fight that we need! We will never give up! We are here and ready to fight whatever is sent our way! ??????
Click HERE for more of the story from his family and during this Lenten season if we could take a moment and offer a prayer for Josh.
Hit a home run Josh and get better fast! Prayers for a complete recovery! Trusting in God’s loving protection over you!