On Sunday night, Channel 4 news covered the story about a 12-year-old boy from Linden, Michigan who suffered a potentially fatal motorbike crash. However, the boy, Max Bontekoe, survived thanks to a medical procedure performed at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
According to the article, it was the first time someone has survived the high-risk surgery.
After Bontekoe crashed, he shockingly stood up and walked away and although it appeared he had no broken bones, he was still feeling pain. When his family checked him out, they discovered bloody tire marks across his chest.
He was transferred to U-M after internal bleeding was discovered, where the on call pediatrics surgeon, Ronald Hirschl, M.D., operated. During the surgery, they used 50 units of blood on the patient. Finally, they decided on a procedure that had only been successfully attempted once before: They would remove the liver, repair the damaged blood vessels, and put the liver back in. Furthermore, the measure of success was that the patient had survived for four days following the surgery.
Shawn Pelletier, M.D., the director of the Liver Transplant Program, was needed. He is interviewed in the story.
An excerpt from the story is below:
“Once Dr. Hirschl had a look inside, Bontekoe’s condition was worse than he thought.
Dr. Hirschl saw that Bontekoe’s liver had had a severe injury in which two of the three veins had been torn off, and the third was partially torn and was bleeding.
‘It was really a surgeon’s nightmare, one of the most difficult things to take care of and handle. There are lots of ways that people have tried to do so, but none of them very successful,’ Hirschl said.”
You can see an outtake interview <a href=” http://www.clickondetroit.com/lifestyle/health/Liver-transplant-saves-boy-in-dirt-bike-accident/-/2300442/15214006/-/158vxlw/-/index.html”>here</a>. You can see a clip <a href=” http://mediaq.mediavisionww.com/emailservice.aspx?videoemail=166371141808484&play=1”>here</a> and read the story <a href=” http://www.clickondetroit.com/lifestyle/health/Michigan-boy-survives-motorbike-accident-thanks-to-high-risk-surgery-performed-at-U-of-M/-/2300442/15213504/-/m6iefz/-/index.html”>here</a>.
