CHARLIE’S STORY – PART 2
The morning following his birth, Charlie was flown by elicopter to a specialized hospital where he underwent a full-day operation. A staff of doctors cut his pelvic bones, re-inserted his bladder and stitched up his abdominal wall. Charlie and his mom and dad lived at this distant hospital for forty days.This was to be just the beginning of eight nightmarish years of continual surgery to repair the extensive problems to his uro-genital track. Not to mention, the many side-effects from all the surgeries and drugs, including a life changing, life threatening toxic allergy to anything made of latex.His mom has lost count of the number of surgeries he has had. She thinks it’s between twenty and thirty. It is not uncommon for kids with this problem to have this many surgeries or more during their lifetime. And there will be many more.These procedures and treatments have totaled close to a million dollars, probably more. While Liz and her husband have some insurance, it certainly hasn’t covered all costs. It was also necessary for Liz to quit her lucrative job as a paralegal to take care of Charlie full time. “He would be in and out of the hospital every five weeks because so many things kept going wrong. His hip came out of its socket. He had epispadias repair. He had a double strangulated hernia. He, also, suffered for several years with such painful bladder spasms that he had to take heavy narcotics to keep the pain at bay. He is has been on ongoing antibiotics to deal with recurrence of bladder infections and will have to stay on them for the rest of his life.”*37/165/1*
