Massimo has been referred to a neurosurgeon at Great Ormond Street to review his hydrocephalus. The original letter went some time ago and when we went for our follow up appointment on Tuesday the doctor we saw, Tony Williams, made it his business to chase up a few things, and the lack of response from GOS coupled with Massimo’s new head measurement of 44 cms, put this at the top of his list. He chatted with Kate (NNU doctor who had originally referred him) and between them they discovered that the doctor that Kate had written to is on holiday, so they wrote another letter to another neurosurgeon and faxed it across yesterday.
Today, whilst in PICU, a phone call came through by pure chance from GOS, looking for the doctor looking after Massimo to say that they have accepted him and that there was a bed for him (!?!?). Emma (PICU Anesthetist) spoke to them and said that as he had just been admitted that was not likely to happen today. Basically, the neurosurgeon has decided to get Massimo admitted so that they can do a CT scan on him and make a decision about putting a shunt in his head to drain off the excess fluid. It is presumed that having seen Massimo’s head circumference chart and his CT scan from March, a shunt is the way forward, but before actually saying that they do need to see him and see us.
So as soon as Massimo is better he will be transferred straight from SGH to GOS by ambulance and he will probably be at GOS for about 10 days, assuming that they do decide to shunt. This means that his MLB and gastrostomy are going to have to wait a little longer, but sorting out the hydrocephalus is definitely more important.