Meeting with the Specialist

The doctor’s office helped us set up an appointment with a perinatologist, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist that deals specifically with the care of the mother and fetus at higher-than-normal risk for complications.

The appointment with the perinatologist was scheduled for the following week. It was a loooong week--full of anxiety, fear, and the emptiness of the unknown.

The following Wednesday (May 9, 2007) we met with Dr. Melissa Herbst, a perinatologist from St. Marks Hospital in Salt Lake City at Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, Utah. The appointment consisted of an ultrasound – a really, really long ultrasound! Dr. Herbst spent a considerable amount of time with the sonogram, viewing as much of our baby’s anatomy as she could.

As she looked at the various sonograms, she informed us that about 1 in every 2,500 babies in the United States is diagnosed with CDH. The severity of CDH varies depending on how much of the contents of the abdomen have migrated into the chest cavity.

Her verdict on our baby? SEVERE.

His stomach, intestines, and part of his liver were in his chest. Because of the severity of the case, Dr. Herbst elected to refer us to one of her colleagues, Dr. Robert Ball, a leading specialist in maternal-fetal medicine and Fetal Therapy Initiatives.