doctors?

[mlkyle]

Hello you precious people out there on this forum...I can't thank all of you enough. I have less fears and tears b/c of all of you.

Have any of you heard of Dr. Hillel Laks at UCLA or Dr. Emile Basha at Children's Boston Hospital?

I'm sending my two year old son's records to both doctors for their opinions.

Thank you so much.

Julie

 

[Lynlw]

Laks is very good, the only thing I know about Bacha is he is leaving Boston, Is there some reason you chose him over the other Boston surgeons?

 

[mlkyle]

Dear Lyn,

I just found Dr. Bacha online. Do you know of any surgeons at Bostons that specialize in BAV/and or valve replacement?

 

[Lynlw]

I don't know of any CHD surgeons that specialize, in BAV, but probably because I don't know of many children that have surgery for it, BUT all of the CHD surgeons, especially the ones that do the complex surgeries, have alot of experience with valve replacement/aortas because that is usually a part of the repair for the complex CHDs. Wether they have to switch the pulmonary artery and aorta to put them where they belong in some kids, to rebuilding sections of the heart and rerouting blood in other, usually part of the repair involves valves and the aorta or pulmonary artery or both.
The 2 surgeons I hear about kids using at Boston most often are Del nido and Mayer

 

[kfay]

I actually spoke to Del Nido about my surgery. I sent him an e-mail and he e-mailed me back that evening and called me the next morning. He then had one of their cardios (I believe her name was Valente, but I think she might just be ACHD). Anyway, I was very impressed with him.

You might also try Dr. Dearani at Mayo clinic, he does alot of pediatrics as well as Dr. Vaughan Starnes who I believe is in LA.

I just want to clarify that these are all surgeons who have great experience in pediatric heart surgery. I consulted them as an adult because I have an ACHD.

 

[ALCapshaw2]

Dr. Laks is one of the Top Surgeons in the West (or country). He is one of the ones I mentioned in my earlier post. He's the one who was Director of Pediatric Surgery at Yale before going to UCLA.

Dr. Bove at the University of Michigan (#3 in the US News Rating List) was the other where he is the Director of Pediatric Surgery.

From Lyn's posts I have now learned that
Boston Children's and CHOP (I'm guessing that stands for Children's Hospital of Philidelphia ...or is it Pennsylvania?)
are the top 2 rated Pediatric Hospitals.

'AL C'

 

[kfay]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Dr. Bove...very good as well. Thanks Al.

 

[Lynlw]

Sorry CHOP is Philly and yes they usually are ranked in the top 2 with Boston, by quite a bit.
What I like about the US news for Children is the rank Reputation which is
"Percentage of specialists responding to U.S. News surveys who recommended hospital for difficult cases."
and one thing they do different with the Childrens rankings than adults is their mortality index is just complex cases, so a hospital that does alot of easier surgeries, won't look like they have better stats then the ones that do alot of the more complex one.
"Surgical mortality index
Relative rate of deaths in complex heart procedures. Lower is better."

I wish they would rank the adult hospitals that way but their mortality is
"Mortality index
Compares actual to expected number of Medicare inpatient deaths within 30 days after admission. Lower than 1.00 is better than expected; higher than 1.00 is worse than expected."

http://health.usnews.com/health/bes...ls/heart-and-heart-surgery-hospital-rankings/

 

[mlkyle]

Once again Al and Lyn I thank you two so so very much...b/c of your recommendation Al, I am getting a consult w/ Dr. Laks....Thank you.

 

[Lynlw]

I was just thinking Texas Childrens another TOP hospital, I don't know of the surgeons there off the top of my head, BUT there is a CHD group that was formed and is very active there http://www.itsmyheart.org/ they have message boards, family matching ect,