Gabriel, Demi & Mom make Crain's New York Business

This Article on Children's Hospitals came out in August (Yes it took me a while to get it scanned and updated) and it featured the Kostaridis Family (minus Dad) and Dr. Stolar, who performed Gabriel's hernia repair.

Gabriel Home and Doing Well

Gabriel has been home since July 16th and he is doing very well. It appears that the surgery has healed well and he is more comfortable now. The Reflux has all but disappeared and he is taking the bottle again. Today he does about 15-25 ml by bottle three times a day. Which is great considering the last couple of weeks before his surgery he wasn't taking anything.

Gabriel also had a bunch of follow appointments with his doctors:
Surgeon everything was healing well, he had a Swallow test done and the Fundo is working well. Food goes down and very trace amount come up. Our GI doc put him on a feeding schedule so his goal is to hopefully be taking 48mls, so we can start compressing. He had a Echo-Cardiogram done and his Cardiologist found absolutely nothing wrong with his ticker. He had a neurology appointment and they did not find any neurological problems, although she said he needed to build up his strength and suggested we get him OT (Occupational Therapy). He is already getting PT (Physical Therapy) and Speech and Swallow Therapy.

Overall he looks great and we hope he continues this forward progress.

Gabriel is back in the Hospital

Gabriel was having difficulties with his bottle feeds so last Thurs (4/10) we stopped feeding him by bottle and were using on the NG-tube. However his reflux was getting worse and he was having "episodes" of discomfort that would last over an hour at times. When he wasn't having these "episodes" he was doing just fine. He is gaining weight (7lbs 10oz) but his "episodes" are getting worse. Upon his visit to the GI doctor they witnessed one of his "episodes" and he immediately admitted to the hospital for observation.

He is currently on Previcid to help his Acid Reflux which everyone believes is the underlining cause of all his discomfort.

Gabriel Athan Comes Home

Gabriel Athan was discharged from the hospital on Friday April 4th, 2008 at 10:30am. He spent his first night at home sleeping in Mommy & Daddy's bedside. Although it was quite uneventful for him...Mom & Dad barely got any sleep. Thankfully Demi slept the whole night, she woke up at 7:00am asking to see Baby Gabriel. He is currently feeding every 3hours approximately 2ounces (65ccs.) That's 8 times a day!!! Four or five times a day we try to give him a bottle but he only manages to get half way through (30-40 ccs) before he gets tired. The rest of his feedings are done with a nose tube (NG-tube)

We are blessed to have him home with us so much earlier than initially expected and at such a healthy state. We would like to thank the doctors, nurses and staff at NYC Columbia-Presbyterian Children's Hospital for the care and support they provided to our family.