Surgeon selection

[admin]

Hello, I am a newcomer to the message board. My son is 17 months old and was injured at birth resulting in Erb's palsy. The mod-quad surgery is now recommended but we are unsure where to get this done. He has not had any other interventions to this point. I am wondering if anyone has had experience at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. That is where we have been doing all of his doctoring thus far. We also have sent a video to Dr. Nath in Texas who recommends the mod-quad and also said that he will need the triangle-tilt surgery later on. Our Mayo doc said they don't see much benefit from the Triangle-tilt so do not perform it. Anyway, does anyone have any recommendations or opinions on either of these 2 surgical options?

[admin]

I highly suggest you meet both surgeons you are interested in and bring loads of questions and make a decision after you meet them.

[admin]

Kids all have different needs and results depending on the severity of the injury and how well the therapy is doing. You need to speak to the doctors themselves about his specific needs. Parents here can tell you how surgery helped their child, but all the injuries are different. Try also speaking with Dr Kozin at Shriners in PA, he's experienced, excellent and there is no charge.Make a decision when you are happy with what you are being told.

[admin]

Hi, I fully agree with the post on checking as meny Doc.as you feel you need. but we had a choice (insurs) only of on in TX, MN,and MO Also depends on what you feel the doc should do more or less for your child

[admin]

Thanks so much for your opinion. We are in favor of doing the surgery, although we still do not know where we should do it at. It seems like Dr. Nath is the popular choice for many. We just want to make sure our son gets the best possible outcome from the surgery so we want to choose the best possible physician. For those of you who have used Dr. Nath, is the day before surgery the first time you meet with him personally? I am also wondering if anyone has ever had this surgery at the Mayo Clinic?

[admin]

We meet Dr. Nath at clinic locally now. But before he started doing that, we did meet him the day before surgery at clinic at the hospital. But if you want to learn more about him email him your questions, etc. and also check his website out http://www.drnathbrachialplexus.com.

[admin]

Nan,
I dont know why the doctors at the Mayo clinic said they were getting bad results from the triangular tilt. My son had the surgery on 3/3/05. He has been out of the splint during the day now for 4 weeks. He looks awesome! and has so much function that wasnt there originally. he was always able to use the arm but had an internal rotation so there was alot of compensatory motions. Since the therapy began he has been doing great. He met with our local pediatric orthepedic and the orthepedic only had high praises for the work that Dr Nath did. He said that James is healing well and with some time and more healing will be on the road to a great recovery.

See Dr Nath and get his opinion as well. We are very happy with the results of the surgery and are glad we went ahead with it!

Elisabeth

[admin]

All I may offer you is that Dr. Nath is the man! He has done wonders for our child and I cannot say enough about him and his demeanor....second to NONE. Please communicate with him and if possible go and see him...you will be impressed with him. He is, as far as I am concerned, "The" expert when it comes to BPI and I am glad that I traveled from Chicago to Texas to have him operate on my son. My son has wonderful movement in his arm after he underwent the "Mod Quad" and we are more than pleased....we have several other problems to deal with regarding his situation but we are addressing them through muscle stim and therapy several times per week...as far as any additional surgeries....we have to wait and see as he is growing and only time will tell....possibly a triangle tilt in his future but cannot make that decision just yet. Please go and see Dr. Nath,we did and we said from the beginning that our son deserves the best treatment that we can give him and he definately got it with Dr. Nath.

[Marie40]

We have been seeing Dr. Nath for 6 plus years because
of our child's BPI injury. We are very pleased
with him and his work.

I recommend you call Brenda at his office and
if possible, go visit with him in Houston. He has
a great web-site you can view on line.

Yes, he is the man.