El Paso doctors perform life-saving surgery on Juarez boy losing significant weight
EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — A group of El Paso doctors performed a life-saving surgery on a boy from Cd. Juarez who was dying of Pyloric stenosis.
Diego, 3, was born with the digestion condition.
He was seen at a clinic in Ciudad Juarez by Dr. Vernon Burke, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon at El Paso Children's Hospital.
Burke worked to get the boy help immediately.
Diego was then seen by doctors that work for El Paso Children's Hospital and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso.
They too saw the boy was losing weight after birth.
"He was losing weight to the point where he was starving to death," said Dr. Vernon Burke, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon at El Paso Children's Hospital.
Diego had a case of cleft palate.
When he came he weighed less at three months, than when he was born," said Burke. “He was lethargic and barely reactive, his eyes and his mouth were dry, and he was becoming dehydrated, so that’s what prompted me to call the children's hospital to see if I could bring him across the border.
Burke said it was approved to have Diego cross the border.
Diego was admitted to the intensive care unit at the El Paso Children's Hospital for surgery.
"He was on the verge, we almost lost him," said Burke.
Burke said Diego gained four ounces the first night after the surgery.
“Subsequently our team at FEMAP has closed his cleft lip and palate and he’s now a chubby, healthy, young guy," said Burke. “In Pyloric stenosis, once they release the heightening of that muscular valve, they are cured and this is a simple, straightforward procedure that happens all the time in the United States, it’s commonly done, but he would’ve died of it in Juarez, he was starving to death, he was only days away from dying.”
Burke thanked El Paso Children's Hospital, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso and FEMAP for getting involved and saving Diego's life.
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