Zachary goes home, sitting up straight!

Zachary is a 9 yo boy who had surgery six days ago at WakeMed in Raleigh NC for severe kyphosis, secondary to brain injury due to “shaken baby syndrome”.  He actually sustained a couple of thoracic fractures at that time, and with his severe brain injury, has gradually slumped forward into severe kyphosis with growth.  His thoracic kyphosis was around 90 degrees preop.
Last Wednesday, I performed a T1-L3 Instrumentation and fusion with multiple osteotomies.
He did well with surgery, and did very well up on the WakeMed PICU for one night, and a few nights on the regular pediatric floor.
Zachary’s new posture is quite evident, and even meant that Zach needed to get used to swallowing his own saliva, which used to just run out of the front of his mouth, since his head hung down so low.
He definitely sits up much better in his chair as well.
We delayed his discharge back to the children’s rehab where he lives a bit since they were having a bit of a flu epidemic.
Thanks to all the caring nurses and doctors and others who helped Zachary this past week!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
http://www.heyclinic.com