Story submitted by Peggie Scott on January 11, 19100 at 11:12:28:
Peggie Scott is 34, from Washougal, Washington, USA.
Family:Husband, Michael, 34, Jessica, 11, Jacob, 8, and Jeremy, who is 6 1/2 months, has erbs palsy
My son Jeremy was born 6-26-99. He weighed 10 lbs, 7 oz. The doctor didn't realize he was so big, and
when I was delivering him, his shoulders got stuck in my pelvic bone area. It was too late to do a c-section,
so, they had to pull him out by his left arm. They said he had shoulder dystocia. His left arm was limp.
But he was able to move his fingers and wrist somewhat. They took x-rays to make sure that his left clavical
wasn't broken. It wasn't. But, they told me to pin his arm-sleeves to the top of his chest(shirt) and he would
hopefully be fine. His right arm was also limp. We were very worried, and when the on-call pediatrician came
in, she said to see his regular pediatrician asap. Our regular pediatrician, Alison Kirby, said to go see a
specialist.She also referred us to a pediatrician physical therapist. Her name is Jeannine Delacambre and she
is at Healthsouth Physical Therapy in Vancouver, WA. The specialist was in Portland, OR. I made the appt.,
which was 1 1/2 months out. (If I would have known what I know now, I would have insisted on getting an
appt. ASAP! You don't wait around with these types of injuries!!!!) In the mean time, I took Jeremy to see
my chiropractor. Both of his shoulders were dislocated. He still had me pin the arms to chest area, not
allow them to dangle. (That further stretches them out, to let them dangle) anyway, within a week, his
right arm was fine, but his left was not. When I finally got into see the specialist, I found out that he was a
BONE specialist, so we wasted 1 1/2 months for nothing. He referred me to Janice Cockrell, a pediatric
specialist over at Legacy Emanual Hospital in Portland, Oregon. She is an AWESOME doctor! The first
appointment was to get an E.M.G. done on his arm. This is to see if there is any nerve activity inside the
arm. Jeremy had some motor units in his left arm. Basically, he had no elbow movement. So at his appt.
one week later to see Dr. Cockrell, she spent over an hour checking Jeremy out. She wanted to wait a
few more weeks to see if he'd get any elbow movement. He did get some shoulder movement, but no elbow.
She referred me to Dr. Piyatt at OHSU Hospital in Portland, OR. He said that Jeremy should get surgery
done. Then, I found out that he has only done about 7 of these surgeries over the past 11 years, and just
couldn't have him do the surgery. I left there very disappointed. About 3 days later, Dr. Cockrell called me
to say that she found a surgeon up in Seattle at the Seattle Childrens Hospital. His name is Dr. Doug Hanel.
She told me that they are going to build a Brachial Plexus wing up at the Childrens Hospital soon. On
Nov. 3, I called to set up an appt. to meet him. The gal tried to tell me that his next opening wasn't until 11-21.
I said no way! I have to get him in ASAP, and I explained how we already wasted 1 1/2 months on the
wrong doctor. She said o.k., can you come up to Harborview Medical Center next monday, and I said
yes. She told me that I might have to wait to get worked in, and I said no problem! So, at his appt.,
Dr. Hanel agreed that he did need surgery. He said that it needed to be done before he was 6 months,
so he'd have a better recovery rate. So, he got us in the day after Thanksgiving,November 26, 1999.
This was his 5 month milestone. For the surgery, they first had to go inside to see what
exactly they were up against. They found out that his C-5 & C-6 were torn, but were repairable. His C-7 was not.
It was avulsed (torn from spinal cord). So they took a tendon from each of his legs to repair the C-5 & C-6.
He had to wear a cast for 3 weeks. When he got the cast off, I noticed that his rib cage looked funny. Dr. Hanel
said that he grew inside the cast, and that that pushed up his ribcage, and it should eventually go back to normal.
One complication from his surgery was that they may have bumped, or "
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