The shunt had indeed failed, and it was obvious (due to the high fever) that there was infection somewhere.
To start things off, Dad was whisked into surgery to have the shunt removed & an external one put in it's place, allowing the normal drainage of Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF) to continue while the infection(s) clears.
Antibiotics (several at once) were also started right away, to get a jump start on any infection, while waiting for results from the labs, cultures and other tests.
The doctors also opted to intubate so that the airway would be protected during surgery and recovery. Abscesses had formed in Dad's stomach that also needed to drained.
What a weekend! We're definitely a long way from those wonderful days of last weekend (see picture below left)!
Dad's still in the ICU at TG (see picture above right). I'm not sure what the duration of this stay will be, but from what I understand - the plan is to remove the Endotracheal tube once he's stable enough to do so; and wait for the infections to clear before inserting a replacement shunt.What then? I think only God has that answer!
Pray that God fills Dad with renewed strength to make it over the new & on-going hurdles he faces!!
God Bless!
John