Cory Gosselin of Fort Frances is in the critical care unit at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children after undergoing the first of two surgeries Monday to alleviate problems related to his scoliosis.
The surgery included the removal of seven ribs, as well as rods which had been previously inserted in his back.
And although Gosselin, 15, came through the operation with good prospects, the procedure took about four hours more to complete than expected, his grandmother said yesterday.
“He went into surgery at 8 a.m. Monday and he didn’t come out until 9:30 p.m. that night,” she said from her home in Terrace Bay.
“They found that one of his lungs hadn’t been working right and it kept collapsing [during surgery],” she added.
But despite the long surgery, Gosselin, who flew to Toronto on Jan. 6 with his parents, Carey and Cindy, had more surprises in store for his doctors when he woke up–he got out of bed.
“As they were putting him on the [traction] bed, he got up, if you please, and stood up,” his grandmother remarked. “The doctors said they had never seen anything like it.”
Gosselin was quickly returned to the bed and sedated to prevent injury to himself.
Meanwhile, because doctors found Gosselin’s bones to be fairly flexible, he will only spend the next two weeks in traction instead of six to eight.
He also has been placed on a respirator for the next while to help in his recovery.
“Right now, he has a halo brace on to help straighten his bones and after the next surgery, they say he’ll be able to walk out as tall and straight as anybody else,” his grandmother added.
His second surgery is slated Jan. 22, when doctors will insert plastic ribs to replace the ones they removed Monday, as well as new rods.
Gosselin’s grandmother reiterated the family’s gratitude to the public for their generous donations to the Cory Gosselin Fund, which remains active at the CIBC bank here.
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