Meet Jillian, Miracle Child!
When Jillian was six years old, her pediatrician sent her to the hospital for an x-ray of her chest. He couldn’t hear breath sounds in her lower left lung for some reason. Jillian’s mom had previously worked as a nurse, so she was familiar with this type of chest x-ray. Doctors quickly saw that Jillian’s lung was compressed and suggested she get a CT scan. Soon, doctors told her parents life changing news: Jillian has a very large mass in her chest.
Jillian’s mom, Sidney, immediately knew that they would receive the best care at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital, so Jillian was admitted just a few days after her original trip to the doctor. After numerous tests over a four day period, several pediatric doctors decided the mass was pressing on her lung and had shifted some of her internal structures including her aorta. Sidney Joffrion remembers “all of the staff were thorough, professional, and supportive. Everyone was so caring, from the doctors to the RN’s to the CAN’s to the techs performing the different tests to the pediatric child life specialists”. After being uncertain whether or not the tumor was malignant or benign, doctors performed a five hour surgery and removed the entire mass. On day 9 after the surgery, the family was told the tumor was BENIGN- no cancer! Sidney Joffrion said, “We are eternally grateful for the excellent medical care she received at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital. We are so thankful that this new hospital will offer life saving treatments to children across the state of Louisiana. We cannot wait to see the miracles that will continue to happen!”
Did you know?
The Hematology/ Oncology unit is a 10-bed unit dedicated to treating patients with blood disorders (hematology) and/or tumors and cancer (oncology).
Count down to Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital’s Mediathon with us as we highlight some of our patients that will be sharing their story with us live next week on iHeartMedia, WAFB-TV Channel 9, and the Louisiana Business Inc Publications! To learn more about Mediathon, click here!
