Meet Our Patients

While he was preparing some noodles for dinner, 14-year old Greg Wiseman reached above the gas stove burner to turn off a light switch. In an instant, flames from the burner ignited the shirt he was wearing. Looking down, Greg tried to beat out the flames with his hands as he ran outside the house to avoid any damage to the kitchen. His running made the flames burn faster and further. He rolled on the ground in an attempt to extinguish the burning shirt but the lose-fitting garment was fanned even greater by his frantic efforts.

With a multiple-week hospitalization facing Greg and his family (residents of Concord), they made the decision to remain at the Jeff Gordon Children's Hospital. According to Dr. David Hoover, medical director at the Pediatric Pavilion and one of the surgeons who worked with Greg during his 16-day stay, skin cells regenerate from second degree burns between 10 to 14 days. “Once the pain is stabilized and under control, it's a matter of cleaning and monitoring the wounds through the healing process,” says Dr. Hoover.

“In my opinion, we could not have asked for or received better care anywhere,” observed Greg's mother, Tonya. “With all our time and travels to and from the hospital right here in town, it's really hard to imagine how difficult it might have been for us at another location far away from home.”

» Read the full story at CMC-NorthEast

Jeremiah Adams' mother was advised of an abnormal development of his tiny right lung 12 weeks before he was born. Nine months after his birth, Jeremiah returned to the hospital where he was born to have about 30 percent of his lung removed while surgically treating a condition known as Congenital Cystic Adenomatoid Malformation.

A congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation (CCAM) is a benign (non-cancerous) mass of abnormal lung tissue, located usually on one section (lobe) of the lung. This condition is caused by overgrowth of abnormal lung tissue that can also form fluid-filled cysts. Consequently, the affected tissue does not function as normal lung tissue.

Greeting the tiny patient on the operating table this past Monday was his surgeon, Daniel Saad, MD and Dr. Saad's physician partner, Dr. David Hoover. Jeremiah's surgery started around 7:30 a.m. and was completed one hour and 50 minutes later. The cyst on Jeremiah's lung was about six centimeters wide. He was released from the Jeff Gordon Children's Hospital on Thursday, a mere three days after being admitted.

“The etiology of CCAMs is unknown and they occur very rarely—about one in every 10,000 births,” observes Dr. Saad. “Without surgical treatment, these lesions have been proven to potentially develop into cancer, compromise the remaining healthy lung and/or produce an increased risk of pneumonia lifelong.”

Although treatment for CCAMs for many years has been an open procedure known as a thorocotomy—a larger surgical incision to expose the affected area of the lung, Dr. Saad used a thoracoscopic approach instead. After graduating from the Medical University of South Carolina as a surgeon, Dr. Saad went on to complete a surgical fellowship in the highly specialized area of Pediatric Laparoscopic Surgery at Emory University Medical School in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Saad removed the mass on Jeremiah's lung using tiny surgical instruments inserted though nickel and dime-sized incisions. The smaller incision size helps facilitate faster healing and dramatically reduces the time spent for recovery in the hospital. As a comparison, while traditional surgery CCAM patients remain hospitalized for up to two weeks, most using a laparoscopic procedure go home within three to four days.

At present, Dr. Saad, is one of the very few Pediatric Surgeons in the region offering this treatment alternative.

“Both Jeremiah and his older sister, Kalika, were born at CMC – NorthEast and although we currently live in Charlotte, this is the hospital I will always go to when my children need healthcare,” says Jeremiah's mother, Alycia Honeycutt. “Our family has been living with this condition (CCAM) since we first learned about it in October and it's a great relief to have everything turn out so successfully. We've received excellent care from virtually everyone we've come in contact with here at the hospital.”

Accompanied by his grandparents, mom and sister, a smiling Jeremiah Adams left The Jeff Gordon Children's hospital on Thursday very unaware of his special place in surgical history at CMC – NorthEast. The first of undoubtedly many infants and children to undergo life changing/life saving procedures by Dr. Saad over the coming years, Jeremiah's prognosis is excellent. Sometimes, as in Jeremiah's case, it's very good to be first.