Aviana’s Story by Michele Ruck Today my daughter, Aviana Collins, is a happy, healthy college student. In the summer of 2015, all of that would have changed if it weren’t for Pediatric Surgical Associates and Dr. Andrew Schulman. Our medical journey started when Aviana was born and doctors realized she had no esophagus.  At that time, we lived in New York, and received the best care available at Mount Sinai. A surgeon there used a piece of Aviana’s ileum (last section of the small intestine) to create an esophagus and connect it… We hit a few bumps along the road… Read more.

Our Story by Charlotte Steedly, RN I was a pediatric nurse navigator at Novant Health for eight years. As long as I have been aware of Pediatric Surgical Associates, I have known them all to be exceptional surgeons and remarkable people. I worked with them every day and I can confidently say I would trust any of the doctors in the practice with my own children, and I have. As a mom, I have endured many injuries with my children, from my daughter with special needs eating a glass ornament thinking it was an apple, to my son falling at school and going straight to the emergency room to receive stitches. One of these great PSA surgeons was there for us both times, and helped me work through it all… Read more.

Lauren’s Story by Janice Crisp When I came home from the hospital, I knew something was very wrong with my newborn Lauren. I was only 20 years old, but I knew to call the doctor when Lauren started vomiting violently. A barium x-ray, and both an upper and lower GI, showed her upper intestines were networked like a web. The only opening to her stomach was a hole the size of a pencil lead, which was why she couldn’t keep food down. At six days old, Lauren had major surgery to remove the connected tissue, resulting in an incision that ran from her chest to her navel. She was in the NICU for four weeks. For two-and-a-half years, Lauren threw up every time she ate… Read more.

Lily’s Story by Maralie Medlin Before my daughter Lily got sick with pneumonia, I had never heard the term “thoracoscopy with decortication.” Fortunately for my family, pediatric surgeon Dr. Andrew Schulman of Pediatric Surgical Associates is an expert at it. We had to admit Lily to the hospital unexpectedly when she contracted pneumonia in 2015. We knew pneumonia could be serious, but for a healthy three-year-old, we thought she would recover in a matter of a few days. I even remember saying to my husband, “People get pneumonia all the time, right?” Understanding the severity of Lily’s illness escaped me for the first few days – until day five in the hospital, when she took an unexpected turn for the worse… Read more.