Hi ladies, I am posting here because I generally feel that this group is the most like me when it comes to how I raise Callum and my views on the medical community.

I am looking for a surgeon who works on pediatric muscle/tendon injuries. I'm not even sure what type of doctor this would be.

My son had a pretty bad accident two weeks ago and required stitches for it. It cut two fingers, one of them was cut pretty badly. Normally I avoid hospitals, but in this case it seemed necessary because I sure didn't know how to deal with a wound this bad.
Anyway, the ER doctor was horrible. The guy said the F- word right in front of us while cleaning Callum's hand-- not that I'm staunchly opposed to the word but in the ER, by the physician?!

Okay, so he stitched up the finger and it looked like he did a bad job, but what do I know? From the very beginning I noticed a lump protruding from the edge of the wound, just under the skin. When I got home, I read "Take Charge of Your Child's Health" (why didn't I read it BEFORE we went? I didn't think of it.) The author writes that for hand injuries, docs should ALWAYS check for damage to tendons, ligaments or nerves. Especially for the location of the injury, I am really concerned about damage to the flexor tendon. The lump I noticed makes me even more suspicious of this.

The wound has nearly healed, and we took him to his regular clinic today to get the stitches removed. He sees an NP. We brought it to the NP's attention that Callum is unable to bend his finger at all. He can flex it back, and push it back when I try to bend it, but he can't bend it down on his own.
The NP says we'll give it a week and if he is still unable to bend it on his own, we will be referred to a surgeon for evaluation.

I'm pretty sure we will be referred to a surgeon at North Oaks. Can I say that I despise North Oaks? I have had ZERO good experiences with them. I'm sure there are good doctors there somewhere, but I haven't met any. Plus, this is the hospital with the terrible ER doctor.

So we are looking for a competent physician to evaluate his finger if it comes to that. Any suggestions at all?
Thanks in advance.

Sara

Colleen Newman would know, she's a CNM at Ochner, and her husband is a physician as well. Ask her for her recommendations, she's on this meetup board

The ped that we see works in the same office as her husband .. he is a surgeon and does work on pediatrics I believe. We are out here in Gonzales though. I love our ped. ... her husband did a procedure on Aralyn when she was 4mths old to cut the connector under her tongue, nothing major so not much experience with him. My family knows both the Mathews so that is one reason I like them so much, they are very gentle and laid back doctors, very respectful of me and my parenting. Not sure if this would be an option for you since it's out here but might be worth looking into. His name is K.E. Mathews, they practice with St. Elizabeth Physicans...it is only him and his wife Leya Mathews practicing in this location. The number 225-647-7337

I would really recommend seeing a hand specialist. In New Orleans there is a hand clinic where they do peds and adults. Maybe there's something like that in BR?

We had to visit a pediatric surgeon for my son....we saw Dr. Lopoo at OLOL. He was very nice. I was very impressed as my son was only 10 weeks old and he himself cradled my baby up in a warm blanket as he took him from me, squeezed my hand and said, "I'll take good care of him!"

The ped. surg group in B.R. that serves OLOL and BRG is Handsbourgh, Upp, Lopoo, and there might be one more...I can't remember. They are good; however, I am w/ Amanda...if looking at wound revision, hand PT, and the like I would go to Children's in N.O. and see a ped hand specialist. I would not dilly dally w/ an N.P. in Hammond or MDs in Hammond.

Thank you so much, everyone! Still no signs of him using his finger so it looks like this really will be the next step. I appreciate the help :)