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When Peyton Miklas comes to Boston Children’s Hospital for an appointment, she isn’t just seeing Dr. Belinda Dickie, co-director of the Colorectal and Pelvic Malformation Center, or one of the other clinicians who care for her. The 18-month-old is also excited to visit with her buddy Bryson. The toddlers — who were born within a day of each other — and their moms have bonded over their shared diagnosis of a congenital difference.
…Bryson’s story: Getting support for an anorectal malformation
The wait while a child has surgery can be excruciating for any parent, and Carrie and Brian Mueller are no exception. Even though it wasn’t the first procedure their son, Bryson, had undergone, they were still nervous when the time came for them to hand him over his clinical team. But before a nurse could begin wheeling the 4-month-old into the operating room, his surgeon, Dr. Belinda Dickie, stopped her. “I’d like to carry him in,” she told the Muellers.
…Bouncing back from a colorectal malformation: Reagan’s story
It’s a situation few parents ever imagine during a healthy pregnancy. Yet there Laura and Jared Maxwell were, waiting anxiously in the Division of Genetics and Genomics at Boston Children’s Hospital as their infant daughter, Reagan, under went a barrage of tests. After their little girl had been born with a congenital anomaly just a few weeks earlier, physicians wanted to make sure that she didn’t have other related genetic syndromes that could affect her heart, kidneys and other organs. “It was one of the most terrifying days of my life,” recalls Laura. …
Focused on Faysal: From Saudi Arabia to Boston for reconnection surgery
It began as a fun, relaxing trip. In 2016, the Alwosaifers were visiting Massachusetts from their home country of Saudi Arabia. It should have been an idyllic summer vacation — but then their youngest child, Faysal, got sick. What started as a stomachache soon worsened until the 12-year-old collapsed with severe abdominal pain. …