Doctor-patient friendship helps make an upside-down world right

Seven-year-old Jacob Downing has a list of caregivers as long as his “different” right arm.
On top on the list is a be-spectacled, bow-tie-wearing neurologist. Dr. Michael Rivkin is co-director of the Boston Children’s Hospital Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center and the first person Jacob remembers seeing after the emergency surgery he underwent following a stroke.
Jacob doesn’t remember the surgery to clear the blood clot that caused his stroke. “Dr. [Darren] Orbach worked a miracle for him,” says Jacob’s mother Nichole. Orbach is the neurointerventionalist who performed the endovascular thrombectomy procedure to break up the blood clot that caused his stroke.
“Like a lot of doctors at Boston Children’s, Dr. Rivkin talks directly to Jacob. Jacob knows he is trying to help him, and it shows,” says his father Justin.
And Jacob has needed a lot of help in the aftermath of his stroke. Initially, he seemed to quickly regain some of his lost skills.
Five days after the stroke, on Nichole and Justin’s 13th anniversary, Jacob started walking. “He had a smile on his face. He was a little wobbly, but it was the most amazing gift for us,” says Nichole.
Jacob takes his first post-stroke steps.
“Jacob has a big heart, great determination and a winning personality,” says Rivkin.
Jacob recovers from his stroke
Like many stroke patients, Jacob has recovered in starts and stops. When he spotted a tricycle outside of his hospital room door, Jacob couldn’t resist...

Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - October 27, 2016 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Lisa Fratt Tags: Our Patients’ Stories Dr. Darren Orbach Dr. Michael Rivkin dystonia pediatric stroke Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center Source Type: news