At 12 months, Rhodes Duhon showed all the normal signs of being a happy baby as he went with his mother, Kaitlyn Hunt, for a routine well-baby visit at Carle Monticello clinic.
Thanks to the expertise of Muzammal Ahmed, DO, who performed the exam’s two-handed
palpitation (pressing on organs to assess size, shape and tenderness of internal organs) little Rhodes had a 1.5-pound benign tumor removed two weeks later at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.
“For us, we will be forever grateful. He did more to help us than we would know to help ourselves,” grandmother JoAnn Hunt said. Hunt also works at Carle Monticello as a patient care manager.
Dr. Ahmed said the right side of Rhodes felt a bit harder than the left side and the baby’s stomach protruded a bit more than usual, but he had a good appetite and was gaining weight. Hunt said her grandson had good coloring and regularly laid on his stomach.
He ordered an ultrasound and JoAnn Hunt said when they received notice of the results 40 minutes
later rather than 24 to 48 hours later, they knew something was wrong. Dr. Ahmed said he could not feel the liver’s edge and an ultrasound showed the benign tumor attached by a small stalk to the bottom right lobe of the baby’s liver.
Carle Health does not have a pediatric oncologist, so Dr. Ahmed reached out to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis and then found a hematologist in triage at Lurie. Rhodes was in surgery for five hours and a surgeon used an 8-inch incision to remove the sizable tumor. He stayed in the Chicago hospital for four nights.
Trained as a registered nurse, Kaitlyn Hunt said the Lurie team explained that the mass had characteristics of a hepatoblastoma, a rare cancer of the liver in children, but it turned out to be a mesenchymal hamartoma, or a rare benign tumor in the liver of infants.
“Almost every provider asked us, ‘who found this?’” Kaitlyn Hunt said. “They said most pediatricians would not have noticed it, plus Rhodes had no symptoms and no visible sign of a mass.”
Dr. Ahmed said the size of the benign tumor in Rhodes was equivalent to a 10-pound tumor in a 200-pound adult. Left alone, it would have kept growing, pushed against the intestines and caused the baby to vomit as food would not pass through, he said.
“Following the well-baby visit protocols are essential to making certain babies get off to a good start and while Rhodes showed no symptoms of a problem, I am glad we took care of his needs before symptoms complicated his life,” Dr. Ahmed said.
Thanks to the expertise of Muzammal Ahmed, DO, who performed the exam’s two-handed
palpitation (pressing on organs to assess size, shape and tenderness of internal organs) little Rhodes had a 1.5-pound benign tumor removed two weeks later at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.“For us, we will be forever grateful. He did more to help us than we would know to help ourselves,” grandmother JoAnn Hunt said. Hunt also works at Carle Monticello as a patient care manager.
Dr. Ahmed said the right side of Rhodes felt a bit harder than the left side and the baby’s stomach protruded a bit more than usual, but he had a good appetite and was gaining weight. Hunt said her grandson had good coloring and regularly laid on his stomach.
He ordered an ultrasound and JoAnn Hunt said when they received notice of the results 40 minutes
later rather than 24 to 48 hours later, they knew something was wrong. Dr. Ahmed said he could not feel the liver’s edge and an ultrasound showed the benign tumor attached by a small stalk to the bottom right lobe of the baby’s liver.Carle Health does not have a pediatric oncologist, so Dr. Ahmed reached out to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis and then found a hematologist in triage at Lurie. Rhodes was in surgery for five hours and a surgeon used an 8-inch incision to remove the sizable tumor. He stayed in the Chicago hospital for four nights.
Trained as a registered nurse, Kaitlyn Hunt said the Lurie team explained that the mass had characteristics of a hepatoblastoma, a rare cancer of the liver in children, but it turned out to be a mesenchymal hamartoma, or a rare benign tumor in the liver of infants.
“Almost every provider asked us, ‘who found this?’” Kaitlyn Hunt said. “They said most pediatricians would not have noticed it, plus Rhodes had no symptoms and no visible sign of a mass.”
Dr. Ahmed said the size of the benign tumor in Rhodes was equivalent to a 10-pound tumor in a 200-pound adult. Left alone, it would have kept growing, pushed against the intestines and caused the baby to vomit as food would not pass through, he said.
“Following the well-baby visit protocols are essential to making certain babies get off to a good start and while Rhodes showed no symptoms of a problem, I am glad we took care of his needs before symptoms complicated his life,” Dr. Ahmed said.
Categories: Culture of Quality, Staying Healthy, Community
Tags: baby, Monticello, Primary Care, Tumor, well baby visit