Thomas Outcalt
Twenty one weeks into our pregnancy we discovered that our baby boy had Down Syndrome. So began our journey with Wolfson Children’s Hospital. Before he was born, our baby was found to have several health issues, one of which was a cardiac abnormality commonly found in children with Down Syndrome. While pregnant we were introduced to our cardiologist, Dr. Robert English, who monitored his cardiac status during the pregnancy and who remains his pediatric cardiologist today. Dr. English and his staff knew through ultrasounds that Thomas was going to need open heart surgery after birth to repair two holes in his heart.
Our son Thomas was born on February 20, 2007 at Baptist Medical Center downtown and was immediately placed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. He was followed closely by Dr. English and the cardiology team. The NICU nurses provided him with wonderful care and gave us constant positive reassurance during our daily visits. While in the NICU, Thomas struggled to learn to drink milk from a bottle. The combination of low muscle tone and heart defects led to minimal weight gain. Discussions regarding the use of a G-tube for supplemental nutrition took place. Dr. English and his colleagues decided to see if, with time, Thomas could learn how to feed and gain the necessary weight to avoid a g-tube placement. We decided to be patient, resulting in Thomas learning how to feed. Slowly, Thomas gained weight and he was sent home two weeks after birth to join our family. We are grateful to the staff in the NICU, along with all of the nurses who gave us encouragement and individualized care on the cardiology floor during our initial stay.
We spent the next eight weeks monitoring Thomas very closely. His heath issues necessitated several emergency room visits and a few overnight stays on the cardiology floor. The decision to proceed with his surgery was made when Thomas was 9 weeks old. Due to the time constraints associated with Thomas’s healthcare, we had not been able to baptize him. During our pre-op visit for his open heart surgery, we were given the opportunity to have Father Dan Devore from Wolfson’s baptize our son. The baptism was witnessed by Nurse Vanessa Latimer, who was also named his Godmother.
My husband and I will never forget that day. While it was a simple and short service, that moment holds a special place in our hearts and we will be forever grateful to Father Dan and Nurse Latimer.
On May 2, 2007 Dr. Eric Ceithaml and his team performed open heart surgery on Thomas. The surgery was successful, but due to the severity of the defect the electrical system in his heart was damaged. Thomas spent almost three weeks in the PICU at Wolfson surrounded by extremely talented doctors, surgeons, nurses and respiratory therapists. He was again given time to heal and see if the electrical system would repair itself before scheduling another surgery for a permanent pacemaker. Patience again prevailed and Thomas’ heart jumped back into rhythm two days before his scheduled pacemaker surgery. After a few more days on the cardiology floor, our healthy baby boy got to go home.
The entire staff at Wolfson Children’s hospital deserves such praise and thanks. Their collective skill and encouraging words will always be appreciated and we will always be thankful to Wolfson Children’s Hospital for mending our little boy’s heart. Today, Thomas is a very happy, healthy four year old boy. We visit Wolfson Children’s Hospital yearly for follow up visits and often think back to his first year and the journey we had there. We remember the wonderful service and amazing staff that cared for our son.
