Eric De La Cruz Goes Into Surgery; Twitter Crashes

UPDATE: Twitter is back and I have copied and will re-post Veronica De La Cruz's messages, which pour out the story of the family's ordeal tonight in an L.A. hospital. They are in their original Tweet form, i.e., constrained to 140 characters each, and deserve to be read as a contemporaneous narrative:

We just finished going over some paperwork with the doctors for Eric. They are going to take him in for an emergency VAD surgery. They are

Prepping him now. I will let you know when he goes in. Please keep praying for #ERIC.

They just took Eric in for surgery

Twitters been overcapacity so haven't been able to update. Am going to try to get to my laptop soon. I need a distraction. We r a mess #ERIC

Finally made it to my laptop. Tried to update earlier but Twitterberry would not work because it said Twitter was overcapacity. Right now I

think both me and Mom feel pretty numb. We've kind of been going through the motions since they took Eric in for surgery. He is surrounded

by a pretty good team of doctors and knew exactly what was going on when they took him. We all had to sign a bunch of consent forms together

so we are all aware of the risks involved. Basically -- Eric got really sick overnight. He wasnt doing very well when we came in this AM

and was saying he wasnt going to make it. The head of the transplant center had put a phone call in to me and suddenly Eric was being

paid visits from every doctor there -- pulmonary, kidney, all the CT surgeons etc...etc....they decided that putting in a VAD would be the

wisest decision to help his failing organs and to get him to transplant. It was becoming clear that Eric could not wait any longer even tho

it is harder to go from an implant device to transplant and there are more risks involved. They have to give Eric a Bi-Vad because of the

condition his heart is in. Normally they do an LVAD -- which they would attach only to the left ventricle, but in Eric's case they have to

do both left and right ventricles. Mom and I are really nervous because any way you look at it, it's open heart surgery and there are many

risks involved so I think we are both scared. Eric was being a trooper before he went in. He was scared too so I put on a relaxation cd. He

wasn't having any of it. Especially the part where it said to relax and pretend you are on a beach. He gave me a dirty look so I took it

off (just trying to help). I asked him if I should play some music and he said yes, so I opened up my iTunes and looked for stuff that might

be calming....something he would like. I ended up playing Thievery Corporation and that seemed to do the trick. He was starting to relax.

When I played Lebanese Blonde he even bobbed his head a little so we were all relieved. Eventually he fell asleep, which was the best

possible thing that could happen. The doctors were happy because he hadn't eaten for 3 days - so there was nothing in his stomach. They felt

it was a good time to do this surgery. They told us the first incision would take place around 6 local time. They also told us to go home

because they felt like it would be a pretty long process. We are going to head back to the hospital around midnight.We've been lucky because

Michele, who works with Trent, has been with us to make sure that we are eating etc...Mom and I have been like zombies. Noelle, Eric's ex is

still here too. Before Eric went in he gave us a thumbs up and mouthed "I LOVE YOU" to all three of us. We promised him we would see him

as soon as he was finished. They told us when he comes out he will be on a ventilator and unable to speak to us. We are just praying now

that everything goes well. I have utter confidence in all the doctors and the team that he is with. Eric has quite a fan base around the

hospital. They all really like him, so I am sure they will take good care of him. Now it's just a waiting game.....Pls keep praying. XO#ERIC

Thank u for all ur prayers. @Ronsayro, thx 4 going 2 church. I am praying with you too. Love 2 all of u 4 ur support xo #ERICS TWITTER ARMY

@trent_reznor TY. We appreciate all the love, strength, prayers & support u've been sending our way. I know #ERIC has. Will keep u updated xo


This could be a mere coincidence. As a journalist, I'm trained to caution you, dear reader, that this may be the case. But a strange convergence of events involving the De La Cruz case and Twitter occurred earlier tonight.

I left my connectivity behind for a few hours to watch my son's soccer team play in their championship game (which ended in a 2-2 tie, followed by shootouts to decide the outcome), and when I got back home, and tried to reload my link to Veronica De La Cruz's Twitter page, I momentarily saw the Tweet flash that "Eric is in surgery."

Then came the whale, the symbol that appears when Twitter is over-capacity. For over an hour I tried dozens of times to get through, but Twitter was only serving error pages. Meanwhile, as those who have made comments on my previous blog posts on Eric's case have noted, his is by far the biggest "heart-based" campaign ever to sweep through Twitter.

Could it be that the size and intensity of "Eric's Army" tonight overwhelmed Twitter's capacity to respond? Perhaps. Or maybe it was merely a coincidence.

Then, I was again offline for several hours to attend the final performance of my son's 8th grade play The Bourgeois Gentleman. (See yesterday's post.)

When I got back, after 11 p.m., I was able to access the material now appearing at the top of this post. I hope Twitter can clarify whether the De la Cruz case was a factor in tonight's shutdown, or whether it was just a case of a spike in traffic caused by other, more routine factors.

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