ROBPI and Dr Kozin
Posted: Sat May 11, 2013 9:18 pm
Our daughter was born with a ROBPI injury. She can lift her arm to ninety degrees and had no external rotation. We have been through many many things this past ten and a half months. We had been seeing a specialist in Milwaukee Childrens Hospital for our daughters bpi injury, and to say the least we were not impressed. The guy always seemed to be heading out the door, like he had someplace better to be when he had surgical consults with us. Likewise I have been doing much research, and thanks to all the people I have met on here, i had a very good idea what should happen regarding her care, and what may help. I had a hunch that her shoulder was disclocated. I brought this up to many of her specialists here, and they all said no no she isnt. Well my friend Melissa has a daughter with the same exact symptoms as mine, and I felt in my heart that her shoulder was out. So i managed to get an mri scheduled. Shortly before the mri we had a consult in milwaukee where he recommended nerve surgery. For some reason i panicked at the thought of that....absolute terror in my heart. I knew it was not what my baby needed. So I called philadelphia shriners hospital and talked to the amazing nurse linda, who is dr kozins nurse, and she acutally said please do not do it!!! get an mri and do not do nerve surgery on her!! They only do nerve surgery if the child has no elbow flexion by six months. After a few weeks of talking to her, dr kozin called me and said, send me a video clip of your daughter and i will give you my opinion. I did that, and he called me and said i can tell she is dislocated, get an mri asap and send it to me. So we did. And lo and behold--she was extremely dislocated. Let me tell you that was the last time we will ever see the surgeon in milwaukee. Even after confronted with the results of her dislocation, the surgeon STILL wanted to perform the nerve surgery and just "keep an eye" on the dislocation. I couldnt believe it!! After ten months of people interacting with my daughter, touching her and watching her...it was a man thousands of miles away who saw her dislocation from a three minute video clip. He recommended tendon transfer and getting the shoulder back in place, so we scheduled it. Both dr kozin and linda helped us so much with our getting her in and taking care of things. She just had the surgery on the 8th of May and meeting them in person, they were even nicer than i imagined. These people actually want to help your kids. They actually care. They return calls and emails just to help ease your mind. They didnt even know we were coming down to philly until a few weeks before her surgery, yet they took the time to answer all my questions and advise me that nerve surgery was not a good option. These people saved my daughter. I can never ever thank them enough for everything they have done for her. If you are going through something similar, always trust your instincts and ALWAYS get a second opinion!! Dr Kozin is the best second opinion because he actually CARES about these little kids!! He knows they are someones child, someones family, and not just another surgery, another bpi injury. Linda is the same way. Without them and this site....my baby would have been at the mercy of a dr who wanted to do unnecessary surgeries on her and who knows what she could have lost from it. I hope that this can help another terrified parent like i was...there are other options out there and do not be afraid to go after them. Always follow what you think is best for your child. 
Katie
Katie