Our meeting with Dr. Hackam, Children's Hospital

We met today with Dr. Hackam at Children's Monroeville office. We had a very good impression of him, and were happy that he was both compassionate and informative.  He spent at least an hour with us, letting us know what to expect and answering all of our questions. Once Ramsey is born, he will be placed on an IV and Nasogastric intubation, transported to West Penn's NICU, then transferred to Children's Hospital (CHP) where he'll remain on a ventilator. They will follow Ramsey's lead as far as his care.  The three issues at stake are lung size, the hole in the diaphragm, and Pulmonary Hypertension. To handle the lungs, he will be placed on a ventillator. The hole is an easy repair of stitching or patching but will only be done when they feel Ramsey is ready. The pulmonary hypertension will be treated with medications. If he is really struggling they will put him on ECMO, a heart-lung bypass that will give him a little break. Dr. Hackam didn't speak of statistics or prognosis basically because each case varies so much. He did say that average hospital stay is 4-6 weeks. Of course, this varies, but that is much better than the 3+ months that I was expecting. Let's pray that little Ramsey is a fighter because so much of this is up to him. He has many supporters and I know that will help!