John David Crowe, father of 21-month-old Noah Crowe, whom The News Courier reported Friday had sustained a third-degree burn during an MRI scan in Children’s Hospital, said Friday he has received assurance that all costs of treating the wound would be borne by the hospital.
Crowe said he was told originally by a Children’s Hospital clinical professor of pediatric radiology that Noah received the wound while he was covered by an aluminum-backed warming blanket, generically referred to as a “space blanket,” while having an emergency MRI Sunday.
Crowe said the doctor told him the burn could have occurred with the powerful magnetic field produced by the MRI “excited” the electrons in the aluminum, causing an electrical arc. The burn, located just below the toddler’s right elbow will require a skin graft to close.
Noah had been hospitalized for a week after surgeons removed a tumor the size of a man’s fist from his brain. The surgery, which required massive transfusions of blood, could have left Noah paralyzed on his right side.
The Crowes brought Noah home to Athens Wednesday with just a verbal agreement from medical staff to treat the wound for free. Crowe said the hospital’s administration offered an alternate explanation for the burn, saying it could have occurred by contact with trapped heat in a cotton blanket recently removed from a warmer.
In either case, Crowe did not receive the written documentation he requested from the hospital that the wound would be treated free of charge. That all changed Friday.
“I was contacted by the hospital’s attorney (also Patient Safety/Risk Management officer) Vickie Atkins today and she said all (uncovered) bills for treating Noah’s burn will be held until the treatment is over,” said Crowe. “The hospital is paying for all medical treatment, all travel and all pharmaceuticals related to the treatment.”
Crowe said Atkins provided written documentation and told him the hospital would be contacting the Environmental Protection Agency about the dangers of the aluminum-backed warming blanket and the device has been banned from further MRI procedures.
Walking
Meanwhile, the Crowes continue to wait on the pathologist’s report to tell them if Noah’s tumor was benign or malignant.
“We probably will not hear about the report until Monday,” said Crowe. “But in the meantime, we’re laughing and cutting up and eating as much junk food as we can.”
Crowe said.
Crowe said Noah had not walked in the hospital or in a physical rehabilitation session, but once home, that all changed.
“We were sitting on the couch watching DVDs and all of a sudden he slid off the couch and walked over to adjust the DVD player,” said Crowe.
However, Crowe said he or his wife, Jessica, will have to hold Noah’s hand when he walks until he recovers from his surgery because a fall could injure his skull before it is healed.
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Injured child’s wound to be treated free
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