My Own Story
By Keith Dochterman January 3, at 10 a.m., Dr. Marianna Gardner called my mom and told
her that she had figured out what was the matter with me. She also said I was going to be operated on at 1 p.m. My mom found my dad on his milk route (he worked for Borden's Milk), and they went to meet
Dr. Ackers at the hospital. He told my parents that we didn't have a 50\50 chance, but that he would do the best he could. When he came out of surgery, the anesthesiologist was with him. I had made it, and
my parents kept thanking him over and over. Dr. Ackers told my parents that this was the man, the anesthesiologist, they needed to thank because he had kept me alive by breathing for me with (bubble).
Dr. Ackers told my parents that he had put a plastic tube down through my esophagus. He said that one side was about 1\8 of an inch thick, and the other side you could see through, so it was like sewing wet
tissue paper together and trying to make it hold. When they took that tube out of me, that was going to be the end result. My mom and dad always told me that I was Dr. Acker's pride and joy
while I was in the hospital. My mom said that every time they would go to the hospital to see me, Dr. Ackers would be carrying me down the hallway. I came home from the hospital for the first time when I was one month
old. I was put under the care of the woman who diagnosed me. She was regarded as an excellent Pediatrician. Her name was Dr. Marianna Gardner. She was a very tall woman with a very raspy voice.
When I would hear her coming down the hall, she would scare me! But apparently she took very good care of me. When I was a young child, Dr. Gardner passed away, and from that point I was under the care of Dr. Edwin Williams
Through the years of dealing with the TEF, periodically, I've gotten food stuck. I remember an incident when I was a child living in Colorado Springs, when I got a piece of watermelon caught My dad kept trying
to get me to drink water to make it go down, and as a little kid it would scare me to feel the pressure of not only the food being caught but filling it up with more water to where it would make me choke.
Eventually, the food would go down, and it always has, and it's that way until today. Along with my son, we have talked that when we were careless by not chewing our food up, and not drinking a little something
with every bit, our food gets caught quite often. Ever since I can remember, but especially after I was 13 years old. Before I think they even had a name for it, I had a terrible case of acid reflux.
Seven years ago I was diagnosed with a Hiatal Hernia and severe inflammation of the esophagus. The doctor told me to stay away from caffeine, and I find that to be very true, although I do still have the reflux.
Important thought- - the facts between my son and I about the doctors stating not to ever lay flat or lie down after you eat, holds very true because we will inevitable have reflux. She told me that he was fine, and that he was on the 3rd floor in the Pediatrics Intensive Care. I turned around at that point, and as I was
walking down the hall, I realized, I was experiencing exactly what my own parents had gone through 23 years earlier. I went down to the 3rd floor. He was on the table, naked, with a plastic bubble oxygen mask
over his head. I took his little hand in my fingers and just talked to him while he was sleeping. All the time I was there, I just stared at his chest and back, because I knew he was going to have all those
scars that I have. I will never forget that because I was the only one that had seen him like that besides the doctors and the nurses, and I knew he was going to have the same kind of scars that I had for the rest of
his life. I saw my baby's sweet, little, innocent (pure) baby skin (unblemished) and knew it would never be like that again. A nurse explained that a doctor was going to want to talk to his mother and me.
I went back to my wife' room where a pediatric surgeon was trying to get my wife to sign the consent form to operate. When I walked in, they had my wife so sedated, she didn't even know what was going on.
The doctor briefly explained to me that they needed to operate immediately. I signed the consent forms, and boom, he was out the door. Right after the doctor left, I called my mom, and she handled it very
well. I think it was because she had never had any doubts about me 23 years earlier. After I called my dad(he was in Toledo Ohio), his reaction was, "Oh my!" He couldn't believe it, like that wasn't suppose
to happen. Because my wife was so heavily sedated, and even after all the families started showing up, I just stared out at the blue sky and talked to God. The surgeon said that the operation was going to take about 31\\2
hours. So I was real surprised when I saw the doctor after about 2 hours. He had good news and bad news. The good news was John had come through the surgery fine. The bad news was that his
esophagus wasn't long enough to attach to ????? one another, but he had gone ahead and put a feeding tube in him (gastrostomy tube). I asked him what we were going to do from there, and basically he told
me we were going to let nature take its course. That day I asked my mom if she thought we could find Dr. Ackers. She said, "Oh I'm sure he's retired by now." I said, "That's okay, I'd still like
to talk to him." The next day my mom did, indeed, find him. She thought he would never remember her name when she introduced herself. He said, "Mrs. Dochterman, how is your son, Keith?" After all
those yeas he even remembered my name! So the next morning I talked to the surgeon for the first time, who had saved my life. He told me then that he had heard of cousins that were born with TEF, but
never a father and son. So, just like the movies, I told him I knew he was retired, but did he know anybody, and he said, as a matter of fact, he did, but that he
taught at the University of Colorado Medical Center. He said, "Let's get off the phone, and I'll call him right away." Around 6 p.m. I went to check on my son, and Dr. John Lilley was
standing over him. For some reason, I knew right away that that was the doctor that my doctor had contacted for my son. As he walked up to me, he shook my hand and introduced himself. He asked me if I
was the man that Dr. Ackers had operated on, and I said, "Yes, 23 years ago." I remember him telling me that after 23 years we have this operation pretty well pat, but there can still be complications, but to be optimistic.
Keith Edward Dochterman, born at Rocky Mountain Hospital, Colorado, on December 27,1956 at 8:16 p.m.,
was transferred to Children's Hospital on January 2, 1957, in nothing more than a diaper and a t-shirt. Mom and Dad used a blanket to wrap me up in, and Mom said I slept all the way there.
That was a good thing, because I had a hard time breathing. That day was the first time my dad held me.
Sixteen years ago on June 28, 1980, around 11p.m. my son John Andrew Dochterman was born. Just weeks
before he was born, I mentioned the condition I was born with to the midwife. She kind of brushed it off, and even told me that it was nothing to worry about. But she did say to go ahead and mention it when the baby
was born. But his ultrasound looked good, and everything else was well at the time. But the night he was born a feeling came over me. When he was born, he was blue and couldn't
breathe, but they revived him, and he seemed fine. They handed him to me to carry to the nursery with the midwife escorting me. On the way I mentioned
again about the esophageal atresia I had been born with. When we arrived at the nursery, she told me to tell one of the nurses to keep an
eye on him. The nurse said, "OH well…" and gave him a bottle. He seemed to take it fine. I watched them weigh and measure him, and he seemed fine all the time. I didn't leave him until 1:30 a.m. I went
home about 1\2 hour later and had a hang-up call about 2:30 in the morning. I went back to the hospital about 8:a.m. and went directly to the nursery and couldn't see him, so I thought he must be in his
mother's room along with her. He wasn't, so I went back to the nursery to inquire where my son was. A nurse greeted me, telling me my son was born with TEF. At that time I had never even known the name of
the condition.
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