A happy return: Catching up with Eva

It’s about 2,400 miles from Salt Lake City to Boston. But it’s a distance Jennifer and Vincent Ramirez are more than happy to travel to get care for their daughter Eva. The family first traveled to Boston Children’s Hospital in January of 2016 for surgery to remove Eva’s encephalocele — a surgery her doctors in Utah had said wasn’t possible. This spring, the family was back in Boston for a follow-up visit with the surgeons who performed her surgery, Dr. Mark Proctor, neurosurgeon-in-chief, and Dr. John Meara, plastic-surgeon-in-chief. For this visit, Jennifer and Vincent had decided to bring along their two older children, Violet, 7, and Vincent, 5, and make a family vacation of the trip, catching a Red Sox game and spending a slightly chilly day at the beach. We caught up with Eva and her family at the end of their week to see how Eva is doing. Slow but steady progress “She’s just really content and happy, even with everything she’s gone through,” says Jennifer. “She’s the easiest baby ever.” As her surgeons in Boston predicted, Eva is behind on meeting her milestones. But with intense physical therapy, along with vision therapy and feeding therapy, she’s made progress. “She has better neck control and is learning to stand with help,” says Vincent. “We just want to see how far she can go. If we didn’t come to Boston, she wouldn’t be here. When we were at home, they said she wasn’t going to make it. That’s why we keep coming back here...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Our Patients’ Stories Craniofacial Program Dr. John Meara Dr. Mark Proctor encephalocele Source Type: news