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2016 Home For the Holidays
LINCOLN DAILY NEWS November 23, 2016
Though usually found on the spinal cord or brain,
Sadie’s AVM was in her liver and was larger
than her heart. As a result, Sadie’s heart had to
overcompensate and there was abnormal blood
flow.
On August 4, 2015, Sadie was born four weeks
early weighing 6 pounds, 1 ounce.
At birth, doctors discovered the mass was
inside Sadie’s liver, making it more complicated.
Doctors needed to transfer Sadie to St. Louis or
Chicago. Since Hoinacki’s had family closer to
Chicago and Lurie Children’s Hospital had more
liver specialists, they chose Chicago. At two days
old, Sadie was taken to Lurie Children’s Hospital
by ambulance.
There, doctors did an MRI that made them even
more concerned. The AVM was taking blood
from the lower half of Sadie’s body and doctors
were afraid it may affect her intestines.
Doctors had Sadie just taking 5 ml of milk at
each feeding, slowly increasing it to make sure
her body could handle food. They were at the
hospital 8 days and Sadie was gaining weight. To
Ethan and Nicole’s surprise, doctors chose to wait
on surgery and sent Sadie home.
Sadie’s early life was full of appointments
with her pediatrician, the liver specialist,
and cardiologists since the mass also caused
her heart to be enlarged due to overworking.
Doctors showed the Hoinacki’s how to check her
circulation and look for signs of failure to thrive.
Though Sadie’s heart was working harder,
echocardiograms of her heart fortunately came
back normal.
Sadie also had birthmarks on her forehead and
neck that doctors wanted a dermatologist to check
due to concerns it was related to the mass.
During one visit, a panel of twenty to thirty
doctors from around the world asked Hoinacki’s
questions about Sadie.
Doctors soon pushed surgery to three months, and
then six months. The surgeon planned to start
with embolizing, or freezing the mass, to see if
that would work. If that did not work they would
operate the same day or the next to remove the
mass entirely.
To keep people updated, Ethan started a blog.
After an appointment October 30, 2015, Ethan
posted:
“Their team has been discussing little Sadie’s
situation and would prefer for her to wait as
close to the six to eight-month age as possible.
They also informed us that they are now
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