Graham Lawrence

When Russ and Kelli’s youngest son (Graham) was 10 days old they noticed he was sleeping much of the day and not waking often even to eat. They phoned their pediatrician's nurse line before heading for trick or treating to see what she advised and if the behavior was okay. This was during the N1H1 epidemic and they were concerned about a viral infection even though they were very, very cautious with him. Initially, they were told that there was nothing to worry about and to come to the office Monday morning for their regularly scheduled visit. After Kelli asked a few more questions the nurse requested that they put the phone next to Graham to listen to him. They quickly assessed and recommended they go to the ER immediately. The family went to the local Community North hospital ER and then was sent to Riley by a physician on staff that was trained at Riley.

After arriving at the PICU, Graham was assessed and the family told that Dr. Turrentine would be doing open-heart surgery on Graham. The surgery went well but during recovery, Graham crashed and was placed on ECMO for 4 days. Graham stayed at Riley for a total of 32 days before heading home with a car full of oxygen and equipment. Kelli shared that months later, Graham practically woke up all better.

He now visits Riley once per year to have checkups, annual scans and has full use of his voice (before coming to Riley he was given a chest tube to assist in breathing which all feared would lead to him not having a voice). There are no concerns whatsoever that he will ever need any heart procedure and is a fully functioning happy healthy charming little boy who loves anything sports!