Surgery Cancelled, Transporting Somewhere Else

Well, never say that I don't have a sixth sense. After we found out about Rowan's heart defects from the pediatric cardiologist, I said "I think they're going to have to transport him". Man. I hate being right.

The surgeons met with us and showed us the three different options that they knew of to approach surgery. One of the surgeries was only possible if everything looked exactly the way they wanted to when they opened him. If not, they had a backup plan...that they made up and has never been done before because nobody there (two pediatric cardiothoracic surgeons with a lot of experience) has seen Rowan's set of heart defects before. The third option Rowan only had a 50% chance of surviving. Should these fail, transplant would involve transporting him to a different facility in a much less stable condition.

So, they presented secret option D - go somewhere else. The surgery he needs is done frequently at other facilities. If he goes to a center where they do these often AND have transplant services available, he is likely to have transplant as an option.

He can wait up to (ideally) another week for surgery.

So - the way I see it, there is no down side to transporting. Sure, we'll spend Christmas away from our daughter and family. Yes - it will be inconvenient. And yes - this is going to really hurt us financially because we won't be able to work - BUT we have support and will work it out. And most importantly - this gives Rowan his best chance.

The staff here is working on figuring out what facilities our insurance will consider "in-network" and approve. Once a facility is chosen, that facility will send a helicopter team to collect Rowan and my husband. Rowan is very stable so transport is very low risk. I will follow by car or plane depending on the distance. Our daughter will move in with my parents for a month. So tonight we are going to spend time with family, maybe do Christmas with our small little family - and start getting ready for a trip.