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We also received a tentative date for Caitlin’s reversal surgery!! It was sooner than we thought it would be: February 25th. The wonderful Dr. LaQuaglia will be her surgeon. I have told some of you this story about him, but for the others out there, it is quite beautiful. It was Christmas Eve 2007 – a week since Caitlin’s diagnosis – and I couldn’t sleep. I met another insomniac mom, Carlina, in the hospital pantry in the wee hours of the morning, we exchanged stories, and she was able to tell me where the closest Catholic Church was so I could attend services. She also told me that she came to Sloan all the way from Texas with her 1-year-old child because of Dr. LaQuaglia, the chief pediatric surgeon. At the time, I had never heard of him (and obviously didn’t know how well I would get to know him when Caitlin required emergency surgery a couple of weeks later!) She told me that she often went to pray and saw Dr. LaQuaglia there early one morning with the priest after mass. She questioned the priest afterwards and he confirmed that it was indeed Dr. LaQuaglia and that he came each morning to get his hands blessed before going to work to perform surgery on the children. I caught my breath at the thought – how beautiful. As the weeks went by, Caitlin suddenly needed emergency surgery. It didn’t even dawn on me at the time that the man explaining all the risks to Mike & I was the same doctor. It wasn’t until after everything was over and we were thanking him profusely, that he raised his hands up and said ‘Hey, it’s not me’ and looked up to the heavens. Suddenly, the pieces connected and I exclaimed, ‘You’re the doctor that gets his hands blessed every morning, aren’t you?’ He just looked at me and one of the nurses said to him, ‘They’re on to you! They heard about you.’ Since then, I have heard time and time again about families who come specifically to Sloan so that Dr. LaQuaglia can be the surgeon who operates on their child. I was told of a family from Costa Rica (I think….) who didn’t speak much English, but could communicate that they were in NY for ‘God’s Surgeon’. Talk about pressure. But we can’t think of anyone else that we would want operating on Caitlin, can you?!?
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[JR: One of our fellow Jasper’s child can use our collective prayers on or about 2/25!]
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[JR: Confirmed "the date of Caitlin's reversal surgery for February 25th - Ash Wednesday". Your prayers would be appreciated.]
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