Landon Tyler Boothe

Omphalocele, Diaphragmatic Hernia, Heart Defects

My son Landon Tyler Boothe was born on June 27, 2007, at UAB Hospital. He was taken by C-section at 39 weeks due to several birth defects that we knew that he had. The doctors told me at 21 weeks after an amnio that he had less than a 10 percent chance of survival after birth, and gave me the option to abort. Of course I refused and put it in God's hands. He was born with an Omphalocele, which exposed his liver and intestines, a diaphragmatic hernia, and multiple heart defects that were called Tetralogy of Fallot-consisting of four heart defects. The evening after his birth he was immediately transported to Children's Hospital in Birmingham to be evaluated for surgery by Drs. Georgeson and Barnhardt to repair the opening in his abdomen and begin the process of putting his organs back in and also repair his diaphragm. His first surgery was at two days old, followed by four more that ended when he was three months old. He remained in the hospital this entire time. All of his doctors and nurses were wonderful there. We could not have asked for a more qualified staff than at Children's to put our son’s life in the hands of. After his last surgery, he was taken back to UAB for open-heart surgery that was a success as well. While waiting to be taken back to Children's, he started to swell and they discovered after consulting with a team of nephrologists from Children's that he had a disorder called Nephrotic Syndrome that was causing his kidneys not to function properly. The nephrologists worked with the doctors at UAB to try to treat this medicinally with no success and decided to take him back to Children's immediately to start dialysis. The doctors have said that Landon is one of only a handful of babies in the world that has survived with so many defects such as these, this long, and that he is definitely writing his own chapters in the medical books. Children's is one of the best hospitals in the world to me. The care that they have shown us is unbelievable to say the least. We were so relieved to have Landon back there in their care. Not to say that UAB is not a good hospital, they are an excellent hospital but Children's knows children and what is best for them and how to take care of them. Children's to us means “life”—it's as simple as that. LIFE! MIRACLES! A place where God's work is carried out on a daily basis.