A family is feeling extra grateful this holiday season. Their 8-year-old son had a massive tumor in his pancreas. They're from Grand Cayman and couldn’t get help. So, multiple hospitals here in Miami scrambled together to save his life.
It was a rush to save 8-year-old Harry and the November surgical procedure was the culmination of months of conversations, tests, and travel for the family from Grand Cayman.
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WATCH HERE"He's really active. He's always doing something, looking to help someone at school,” Yuri, Harry’s father told NBC6 anchor Sheli Muñiz.
Now, Harry was the one who needed the help. A few months ago, severe abdominal pain would forever change the course of Harry’s life.
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“He was saying that he had bad pain, and I was telling her to hold me on the side, to do pressure that would help. He couldn’t sleep that night. I went to the couch, I went to the bed, I went to the couch. I wanted that event because it kept hurting,” recalled Harry and his mom, Geidys.
Harry’s family rushed him to the ER in the Cayman Islands, where tests revealed a large tumor overtaking his pancreas. Grand Cayman immediately referred him to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. Since then, Harry and his mom, Geidys, have been in Miami staying at a short-term rental. Dad, Yuri, has been traveling back and forth every week.
"We are from the Cayman Islands. And when we got there, I said, ‘Oh, hey, this is the big leagues,” said Yuri.
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Big leagues because Harry brought together two South Florida hospitals. A rare collaboration to address an even rarer condition with a unique approach. Dr. Mayank Roy, a surgical director at Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Felipe Pedroso, a pediatric surgeon at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital both collaborated to help Harry.
“In collaboration with Dr. Roy and us, really discussing this case, reviewing the images, I don’t know how many times, we FaceTimed just to review the images together and discuss this case, the decision was made to proceed with a central Pancreatectomy, which is the removal of the neck of the pancreas with a reconstruction of the intestine to drain the remaining pancreas. So, this was a unique surgery that we hoped would provide this child with the best result,” said Dr. Pedroso.
Together, Dr. Roy and Dr. Pedroso were able to remove the large mass without making the 4th grader medically diabetic.
“The surgery ,which we did for Harry is not that common, even in the adult population. We do maybe one or two a year,” Dr. Roy told NBC6. This family is now filled with hope to head home in time for the holidays and gratitude for this partnership.
“We have no words to really say thank you to all of them. It's really hard every time that we talk about it, think about them, and how they were sleepless, and how many times they discussed his case all over,” said the family.
The goal is to undergo some tests and follow-ups to get cleared for the family to head home before the new year, and so far, tests are very encouraging.
