United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Thank you all that have responded to my request about opinions of Dr. Grossman out of Miami.

We are facing a real delemma right now and can use anyone's help. Dr. Grossman is very keen on doing the nerve graft surgery, and our son is tentatively scheduled for the end of September.

We have taken our son for a second opinion to Dr. Peter Waters at the Children's Hospital in Boston who said that he doesn't need nerve surgery, but shoulder surgery since the top of his arm bone is out of socket, and was very adamant about it. He said nerve surgery could do more harm than good.

We are seeking yet another opinion from Dr. Allan Belzberg out of Johns Hopkins Children's in Baltimore this week.

If anyone can give us opinions of any of these doctors, pros and cons, why you chose who you did, who else did you seek opinions from, etc. that would be most helpful, since we are running out of time.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Adrienne

I emailed you.

i emailed also

Thanks, see reply.

Thank you. Responded privately.

Hi Adrienne-
I emailed you too

Have you considered an opinion from Dr Kozin in Philly?

We see Dr. Belzberg at Hopkins and Dr. Kozin in Philly. We like them both very much and they usually are on close with their ideas and recommendations for Trent's robpi. I would seek other opinions. It sounds like two doctors have very different ideas and you need to get as much advice as possible to make the best decision for your child.

We have seen all three of the doctor's listed. My daughter is 9 years old and has a robpi she has been seeing Dr. Belzberg since she is 3 months old. She has never had surgery. Through the years we have gone through stages were we felt we needed to get another opinion for our daughter. We saw Dr. Grossman many years ago and he was fine. I started to get the urge to see another doctor for another opinion.....So this summer we went to Hopkins to see Dr. Bruchart (he is a hand specialist that Dr. Belzberg recommended us to see). We then went to Boston to see Dr. Waters to get his opinion on my daughter and he felt no surgery too and to continue what we were doing. I think you need to go with your gut and do what you feel is right for your child!!!!Good luck

You know, you do what you feel you need to do. I applaud you for getting other doctor's opinions. I feel that in our case we probably should not have gone with the nerve graft surgery, since there was improvements, but some lag in the first year. We had nerve graft and mod quad and there has been some improvement in ROM after mod quad. Getting back to nerve graft, I feel that was the major set back with a delay in physical therapy; not getting to practice crawling and other weight bearing exercises, which has been so strongly stressed. Good luck with your decision. BPI is a long journey!