On the morning of 8/26/25 Alessandro had been placed on the ECMO machine. This would be a day that Angie and I will never want to go through a second time.
Dr. Starr stepped in and without hesitation saved our boy. After some time we were able to see him, unfortunately with the ECMO children have to be sedated since there are cannulas coming out of his neck. Alessandro would be sleeping for an unknown number of hours. By the late afternoon we got confirmation that he would be transferred back to UCLA via by their special ECMO ambulance.

The UCLA team got CHCO around 9pm, Angie and I left to meet them at the hospital. We decided to get some yummy dinner at Taco Bell around the corner from the hospital. At the same time we had called Allan and Audra, to notify them we would not be able to attend their wedding happening in September. We cried and talked til around 11:30/12am and we asked to have them send snaps, instagram tags and Facebook posts.
By midnight we parked and checked in to wait and see our boy. Once we had arrived to the doors of the CVICU it was still going to take time before we were allowed in. Angie found a couch to lay out on in the waiting room, I held on to a silk pillow and fell asleep sitting up. It wasn’t til around 1:30am when the staff had came to bring us in to see him.
In the room, the light were on and bright. Multiple staff was in there and setting up monitors, a camera as well to catch if there were any seizures.
By this point we were so burnt out and tried to sleep in the room on the super uncomfortable couch that is meant for one but can squeeze two. That didn’t work out and we would switch and take turns sleeping.
We would have to make do with what we had and wait for daylight.