I hope your son will be alright. A woman on the prayer list at our church had that and hung in the balance for several months, and it looked hopeless, but she came through it and gradually recovered. Also, there was an article in readers digest about someone with that, again looked hopeless, but they tried a radical new treatment and it worked. Don't remember what that treatment was, but it was in Reader's Digest, I believe a recent one.
Cindy
I can only imagine how hard a time it is for you.
I am a survivor of ARDS. It's over 3 years now. I spent a month in ICU on a ventilator, another month in hospital and 2 more months getting strong enough to return to work. I was 48 at the time. My son and my mother must have been going through a lot of what you are going through now. I wish they had access, at the time, to the support group for families of ARDS patients: see
http://www.ards.org/.
It is a wonderful site that I found after I got better. I hope your son will be OK. I'm writing this to let you know that while ARDS is a very serious illness, people like me do survive. The loving prayers of friends and family I feel helped me to pull through.
Best wishes
Jenni2002