Posted by Mike Phillips on January 24, 2004 at 23:27:03:
In Reply to: Remarkable book about Cleveland Clinic posted by Henry Alken on January 24, 2004 at 22:04:40:
Henry,
Dr. Mee did my ASD repair and maze on April 15, 2003. He is a remarkable surgeon as you can see from what you read. The April issue of Reader's Digest has the story of Dr. Mee. My Aunt found it while I was there and I had Dr. Mee and his nurses sign it for me.The CC is fortunate to have Dr. Mee on their staff. He is a very busy surgeon, as they all are at CC. I scheduled my surgery in January 2003 and April was the first month he was available. He was out of the country in February and March (Brazil and another country).
I was scheduled for surgery at 8:00 a.m. but there were two emergency newborn surgeries that morning. One was from Mississipi and the other from California so my surgery was not started until nearly 4:00 that afternoon. It is a good thing that I was already at peace with my decision or I would have been a basket case sitting there all those hours waiting. I was all ready for the operating room when my surgery was set back. I just happened to be in the room where one of the babies was staying and talked to the parents before they came to take the baby to surgery. They have a large room on the step down side behind the nurses station where all the newborns stay and it is also where they pre-prep you before taking you to surgery. After surgery Dr. Mee brought my family into my room in intensive care to see me and explained to them why he was leaving me on the respirator overnight, normally he removes his patient about an hour after surgery. He wanted to make sure that they were comfortable before going back to the hotel for the night. The next morning he was in to see me at 6:30 and had me removed from the respirator and moved to step down. He was in to see me at least twice every day I was there expept Sunday, which happened to be Easter.
I don't know how the adult hospital is set up since I had my maze done in the pediatrics hospital, but having the operating room, intensive care and step down unit on the same floor as well as all the doctor's offices and testing facilities is nice. I never had to leave the floor once I checked in the day of surgery.
- Re: Remarkable book about Cleveland Clinic Henry Alken 12:03:08 1/25/2004 (0)