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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Stetson's Story

Stetson Carroll is an active toddler who is a pure joy to be around.  He loves being around people, especially other children.  His favorite stuffed animal is his soft puppy that plays “Jesus Loves Me.”  Stetson loves riding in the tractor with Daddy and also playing with his toy trucks and tractors.  His mom, Amber, says Stetson even makes engine noise by growling!   He is a typical, healthy little boy who came into the world under atypical circumstances.

Stetson and his family live near Pierre, SD.  Shortly after Stetson was born at St. Mary’s Health Care Center in Pierre, his heart stopped.  And even though the St. Mary’s medical team was able to get his heart beating again, Stetson began having seizures due to lack of oxygen.  Dr. Christy, the traveling pediatrician from Indiana who occasionally works weekend shifts in Pierre, knew the severity of Stetson’s condition and that they were in a race against time.  

According to Amber, Dr. Christy had just attended a seminar about head cooling with Dr. Kahn, one of the neonatal intensive care doctors at Sanford.  The treatment seemed like the perfect answer so the doctor had Stetson flown to Sioux Falls for the procedure.  A water-cooled cap was placed on Stetson’s head for three days to cool his brain and help it heal. Each day that Stetson spent in the NICU, his condition improved.  

A few days after the procedure, Stetson started breathing on his own.  According to Amber, getting him to eat on his own was more difficult, however.  Stetson used a feeding tube for almost two weeks but eventually got the hang of eating.  

Doctors performed many tests, including an MRI, on Stetson.  All of them showed the same result—his brain had healed and the head cooling procedure had worked!  After 16 days in the hospital, Stetson was able to go home.  Amber says that as far as she, Daddy, and the doctors can tell, there have been no long-term effects, just one amazing, perfect little boy.  

Ironically, it was also the only weekend Dr. Christy was available to work in the Pierre hospital.  “We believe that God is the reason that this all worked out as it did,” Amber said.

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