7-year-old Grace is an extremely creative and curious young girl. She enjoys doing art projects in her first grade class and at home, she enjoys helping in the kitchen and growing flowers; basically, anything where she can be her own creator. When Grace was born, doctors found she had a blood disorder where her red cells are smaller and more fragile than normal. Grace became anemic, resulting in numerous blood transfusions and because her red cells are less flexible than normal red cells they were getting trapped in her spleen. This caused her spleen to become enlarged and doctors recommended that she have a spleenectomy.
The blood disorder Grace has runs in her family, her mother had a spleenectomy at age 9, her brother at age 5 and her grandfather also had one when he was younger. The family jokes that it is a right of passage. However, Grace was benefiting from modern technology and would receive a special minimally invasive, single-incision surgery, which would increase recovery time and reduce scarring.
“Although Grace, her mother, brother and grandfather have a few things in common, she is different from them in the way her surgery was preformed,” says Nam Nguyen, M.D., careline director, Pediatric Surgery, Miller Children’s Hospital. “With Grace we preformed a single-incision spleenectomy, which means all it took was one small incision above her belly button to remove her enlarged spleen. We also operated on her brother in 2006 and at the time a similar surgery took four incisions. “
Today, Grace is healthier than ever and enjoying ice skating, drawing, scootering around the town and being her life’s own creator thanks to the specialized care at Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach.
The Surgical Care Center at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach cares for children from newborns to young adults, who need common or complex surgical treatments in a leading, state-of-the-art pediatric surgical center designed just for kids. Board-certified pediatric specialty surgeons and an expert surgical care team, are specially trained to care for children, because children’s surgical needs are different than that of adults.
Generally, children who need surgery in the torso area to treat conditions such as, hernias, undescended testicles, head and neck masses, non-cardiac thoracic problems, chest wall deformities and some cancerous tumors may be seen by a general pediatric surgeon. General pediatric surgeons at Miller Children’s perform leading minimally invasive surgeries, such as gall bladder removals and appendectomies, that can usually be done in an outpatient setting (children don’t need to spend the night).
Other surgical specialties done in Miller Children’s advanced surgical center include, ENT, Plastic Surgery, Orthopedic, Neurosurgery and Urology. Working with in-house pediatric sub-specialists, that cover more than 30 specialties, allows Miller Children’s surgical care team to provide thorough, coordinated care for each child.
The surgical care team at Miller Children’s also has extensive experience in neonatal surgery, treating congenital defects in newborns and premature infants, including major vascular procedures. All pediatric surgeons work closely with anesthesiologists, to provide anesthesiology care, and ensure a child’s comfort needs are met. The Surgical Care Center at Miller Children’s also cares for injured children, who have been admitted through the trauma or emergency department.
Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach Stands Apart
- Using the latest technological advances in pediatric surgical care keeps Miller Children’s surgeons at the forefront of minimally invasive surgery.
- Miller Children’s surgeons perform the latest minimally invasive surgery called single-incision laparoscopic surgery, joining just a handful of hospitals across nation.
- Miller Children’s is opening the newest, state-of-the-art pediatric surgical center in the region, dedicated exclusively to infants, children and adolescents.
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