LAUREN'S STORY

Being a 14 year old girl and trying to make it in the world of perfect bodies and great looks can be rather frustrating. Then add a concaved sternum and deformed chest to the mix, and your chances of ever being "beautiful" are very limited. My name is Lauren Gray, and when I was 14, I was this girl. Working hard to be gorgeous like the other girls in school. But unfortunately, I was born with a birth defect that caused my sternum to be concaved and made it appear as though I had a giant hole in my chest. This defect, known medically as Pectus Excavatum, needed to be fixed, and fast. In the beginning, my surgery was purely for cosmetic reasons, but after having an echocardiogram, which is an ultrasound of the heart, they found that my sternum was putting way to much pressure on my heart, and without relief, my heart would collapse. So three days after meeting Dr. Kristopher Kallin, he preformed my surgery. It was a 4-hour long surgery which included me being filled with gas, having a 15 inch metal bar placed in my chest, and a whole lot of pain once I woke up. First, I was tilted upside down and filled with air so that all my organs would move out of the way. Then a two inch incision was made on both sides of my chest. Next, the metal bar was placed in my chest, like a U and once the bar was in there, a machine was used to crank the bar around so that it looked like an N inside my body. When the bar was rotated, it slowly pushed out my sternum and flattened the hole. Then the metal bar was fastened to the muscle in my rib cage and will stay in for two years. August of 2004, I will return once again to CHOC to have the bar removed.

Staying 10 days in the hospital is never fun, and being 6 days in the ICU and having to lie completely flat isn't exactly my favorite way to spend a summer. If it wasn't for the great doctors and the loving nurses, my stay would have been horrendous. From the moment I stepped foot on to the hospital property, there was a smiling face to greet me. Whether it was the guys at the parking garage, or the woman at the front desk, people always had smiling faces and love from their hearts pouring out on me. The food was awesome, the people were friendly to me, but most of all, everyone was caring towards my family and my visitors. I think the greatest thing about CHOC was the way they always had my family involved. Whether it was physical therapy or getting ready to go home, my family was always involved and the staff at CHOC always supported my family throughout the entire experience. I was frightened by the whole idea of being hospitalized. Going from the girl who had never had a cavity to the girl who was going to have life threatening surgery was rather scary. If not for my new family at CHOC, I wouldn't have been able to survive. If you or a loved one is having surgery at CHOC, relax. CHOC has the smartest doctors, the best trained nurses, and the friendliest staff. You need not worry about your stay at CHOC, because take it from someone who spent a week of her summer at Camp CHOC, as I call it, they will take great care of you.