The Culture of Different MKTG_150064494_2018 Service Line Big Book Full_FIN | Page 12

pediatric neurosurgeon Todd Hankinson, MD,
didn’t have the luxury of imagining what this
surgery would be like when he was bigger.
Hunter’s legs were rapidly weakening, and he
was nearing the very real possibility of lifelong
paralysis. There was no more time. worked to revive him, Jeff frantically tried in vain
to cut off the cast with large shears. In the Denver
Health emergency department — a Level I trauma
center — someone finally managed to remove it.
“When you see your kid losing the use of his
legs, you’ve got to do something about it if
there’s something you can do,” Hunter’s dad,
Jeff Peters, says. “We decided that we wanted to change directions,”
Jeff remembers. “It’s something I don’t even like
thinking about, coming that close to losing him.
But it forced us to do something else.”
It was a breaking point for Jeff and Jennifer.
“It was a really hard decision,” says his mom,
Jennifer Peters. She looks at Jeff.
“Because you know that you’re risking your
child’s life,” he finishes.
Pierre Robin sequence
3D model of Hunter’s spine.
(actual size)
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A Spine the Size
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Hunter Peters’ spine looked
more like the toy model of a
twisting rollercoaster track
than a 3-year-old’s backbone.
Sumeet Garg, MD, pediatric
orthopedic surgeon at
Children’s Hospital Colorado,
holds a 3D model of it in his
palm, demonstrating the
significance of the 90-degree-
plus curve.
“That’s definitely pushing it,”
Dr. Garg says, turning it in
his hand, examining the
complicated twists. “That’s as
small as we could probably go.”
To imagine operating on a spine
that small is daunting, and some
hospitals might not have done
it. Because of Hunter’s small
stature, the risks for bleeding,
paralysis and infection were big,
especially because the spinal cord
was being compressed. A spine
that small often can’t support
the screws needed to stabilize
the spine for reconstruction.
Surgeons prefer to let kids grow
bigger before operating.
But Hunter’s spine was
compressing his spinal cord.
Dr. Garg and his colleague,
When Jennifer was pregnant with Hunter, her
physicians at a Denver hospital suspected he had
Pierre Robin sequence, a set of face and head
abnormalities such as a smaller lower jaw, cleft
palate and breathing trouble that present at birth.
The night before birth, physicians took an X-ray
and noticed a curve in the baby’s spine — another,
rarer abnormality of Pierre Robin sequence —
but there were bigger things to worry about, like
ensuring respiratory stability after birth.
After six weeks in a neonatal intensive care
unit, Jeff and Jennifer brought Hunter home.
Jennifer noticed the bump in Hunter’s back, but
with the reassurance of his caregivers, didn’t worry
about it. When Hunter was about 5 months old,
the bump became more prominent. Suddenly, its
growth progressed.
“It felt like, month-to-month you could see a
physical difference in him,” Jeff says. “It was fast.
It was unbelievably fast.”
Doctors at their local hospital diagnosed him with
congenital kyphoscoliosis, or curvature of the spine
in two planes. As standard treatment, Hunter’s
physicians put him in a spine cast that encased his
trunk, extending from his shoulders to his waist, to
slow his spine growth and delay surgery.
One day, while wearing the cast, Hunter choked,
aspirated and lost consciousness. As paramedics
They reached out for second opinions and
eventually ended up at Children’s Colorado.
“From that point forward, everything changed for
the better,” Jeff says.
The truth about Hunter’s
kyphoscoliosis
Drs. Garg and Hankinson showed the Peters the
3D model of Hunter’s spine, to explain to them
how the spine was compressing the spinal cord,
and that paralysis was a very real possibility
without treatment.
“A big part of the planning is talking to the families
about it up front.” Dr. Hankinson says. “It’s much
easier for the parents to understand how we got
here, when the time comes.”
“The surgery itself could paralyze him,” Dr. Garg
adds. “It was very high risk because there’s a
lower margin for error due to his small size and
already compressed spinal cord. It’s the biggest
surgery we do.”
“One of the great things about working with Dr.
Garg was how refreshingly straightforward he was
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