Flight of the Rondone by Patrick Girondi

Author:Patrick Girondi
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510772205
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

A sick child either binds a family or rips it apart.

—unknown author

One of the spleen’s purposes is to clear out viruses. Without a spleen, a bacterial infection could end Santino’s life. Any splenectomized child under ten must report to a hospital in the event of a fever. Santino’s spleen continued to devour much of the little hemoglobin he produced. Dr. Perrine favored giving Santino a partial splenectomy, which would stop the spleen from demolishing his hemoglobin. Once on the Butyrate therapy, Santino would make normal cells and the piece of spleen that was left would return to doing its job as a filter against infection. In the long run, he would be safer and healthier.

Most of the doctors I spoke to about the situation disagreed with Perrine, believing that doing a partial splenectomy would only prolong the removal of the remainder of the spleen. In their opinion, the risks of a second surgery outweighed the benefits of Santino holding on to his spleen for what they thought would be only another year or two.

It was not a life-or-death decision; Dr. Perrine would be Santino’s primary caretaker, at least for now. Santino was scheduled for a partial splenectomy and at the same time, the surgeon would install a catheter into a main heart artery, facilitating the administration of the future Butyrate medicine.

The morning of the surgery, Lucrezia was in pieces. I wanted to be strong for her. She seemed to read this as arrogance or indifference. I just couldn’t get anything right.

The rolling bed arrived at six a.m. We followed it down the hall, onto an elevator, and finally to the terrifying “doors of hope,” where our son would meet masked people with knives. Signing the anesthesiologist waiver papers reminded us that not all children make it back through those “doors of hope” alive.

Since a partial splenectomy was an experimental procedure, our insurance company would not pay for it, and the hospital had limited liability. We signed without reading a word and were told that the procedure would take less than an hour.

The doctor slipped a mask onto Santino’s tiny nose and mouth. He glanced at his mother, then at me. Santino’s face was calm, but a little tear ran down the side of his face as he was rolled away.

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