We came to Nationwide Children’s in September, 2004, after 2 previous open heart surgeries at WVU Children’s Hospital in Morgantown, WV. Michael had been feeling sick for a few days and it was discovered he had MRSA, which was attacking his weak parts… his joints and his heart. He had an aortic pseudo-aneurysm and WVU Children’s Hospital didn’t have the equipment needed to perform the surgery and sent the records to 4 different hospitals in our country. No one was comfortable enough to take the case, except Dr. Galantowicz at NCH. We were told we had to make the decision to be transferred or stay where we were. While WVU was our “home” and we didn’t want to leave, we really didn’t have a choice. Our son would not survive without this surgery. They had given us a 10 to 15 % chance of survival.

We were picked up in a fixed-wing airplane by a wonderful team. We kept in touch with the RN for a while after because they treated us so well. We arrived at NCH at 7:00 pm and immediately began working on Michael. Dr. G took me and my cousin (Michael’s daddy was driving from WV) into another room to give us the run down on everything he was going to do and all the risks involved. After going through all the bad stuff, he said “but none of that’s going to happen, I’m going to fix your boy” and believe it or not, I believed him 🙂

Surgery began at 7:30 pm, every hour a wonderful woman came out and updated us, and at 3:20 am he came out with a big smile on his face. Michael wasn’t out of the woods but he had survived the surgery!!

Over the next few weeks Michael recovered and we eventually went home, after spending a month in the hospital. He had a long road ahead of him and has had many heart caths and now has 8 stents, all placed by Dr. Cheatham at NCH.

We had such a wonderful experience at Nationwide Children’s and, while I’d love for Michael to have never gone though all he has, I wouldn’t really trade meeting the Doctors, Nurses, all the staff and the parents we’ve met for anything.

From the day we were flown there to the last time we were there in 2015, we have NEVER had a bad experience. We are truly blessed to have become associated with your hospital. If I call with a question, I get an answer, which I can say has happened more times that I care to remember.

The last time Michael was there for a heart cath, Dr. Galantowicz even came and found us in the waiting room during the procedure, just to check on us and see how he’d been doing. We are proud to be a patient/family of Nationwide Children’s Hospital!

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• Name: Michael L.Michael Lemon
• Condition(s): Tetralogy of Fallot
• Age at Treatment: 3
• Age Today: 08/12/200122 Years

We came to Nationwide Children’s in September, 2004, after 2 previous open heart surgeries at WVU Children’s Hospital in Morgantown, WV. Michael had been feeling sick for a few days and it was discovered he had MRSA, which was attacking his weak parts… his joints and his heart. He had an aortic pseudo-aneurysm and WVU Children’s Hospital didn’t have the equipment needed to perform the surgery and sent the records to 4 different hospitals in our country. No one was comfortable enough to take the case, except Dr. Galantowicz at NCH. We were told we had to make the decision to be transferred or stay where we were. While WVU was our “home” and we didn’t want to leave, we really didn’t have a choice. Our son would not survive without this surgery. They had given us a 10 to 15 % chance of survival.

We were picked up in a fixed-wing airplane by a wonderful team. We kept in touch with the RN for a while after because they treated us so well. We arrived at NCH at 7:00 pm and immediately began working on Michael. Dr. G took me and my cousin (Michael’s daddy was driving from WV) into another room to give us the run down on everything he was going to do and all the risks involved. After going through all the bad stuff, he said “but none of that’s going to happen, I’m going to fix your boy” and believe it or not, I believed him 🙂

Surgery began at 7:30 pm, every hour a wonderful woman came out and updated us, and at 3:20 am he came out with a big smile on his face. Michael wasn’t out of the woods but he had survived the surgery!!

Over the next few weeks Michael recovered and we eventually went home, after spending a month in the hospital. He had a long road ahead of him and has had many heart caths and now has 8 stents, all placed by Dr. Cheatham at NCH.

We had such a wonderful experience at Nationwide Children’s and, while I’d love for Michael to have never gone though all he has, I wouldn’t really trade meeting the Doctors, Nurses, all the staff and the parents we’ve met for anything.

From the day we were flown there to the last time we were there in 2015, we have NEVER had a bad experience. We are truly blessed to have become associated with your hospital. If I call with a question, I get an answer, which I can say has happened more times that I care to remember.

The last time Michael was there for a heart cath, Dr. Galantowicz even came and found us in the waiting room during the procedure, just to check on us and see how he’d been doing. We are proud to be a patient/family of Nationwide Children’s Hospital!