Three Cheers for DuPont!

If you are ever in the situation that your child needs to go to the hospital and you are in the Philadelphia area, go to DuPont Hospital.  I cannot stop raving about our experience there this past week.

Here are the highlights:

1.    FREE valet parking

2.    We got there early (about twenty minutes or so) and were brought right to Twin A’s hospital room.

3.    The hospital room was as nice if not nicer than some hotel rooms I’ve stayed in! 

a.    There were two single beds pushed together for DH and I to sleep in (as opposed to the typical single armchair that can be transformed into a bed) so we didn’t have to fight over who got to stay overnight.

b.    The bathroom was literally bigger than the one we have at home.

c.    Housekeeping left a little gift bag of toiletries we may have forgotten.

d.    There was a huge flat-screen TV attached to the wall that could be turned towards our bed or towards Twin A’s bed.

e.    The TV had a wireless keyboard that allowed us to control the TV channels, movies, OR the internet.

f.     The room had a small table with two chairs that DH and I could work at if necessary.

4.    There was an incredible game room on another floor that we had free access to, complete with a pool table, air hockey, fooze ball, video games, piano, arts and crafts, puzzles; Twin A didn’t want to leave.

5.    Before the procedure, the anesthesiologist came to our room twice to go over with both Twin A and with us what will happen.  The best was we discovered that he also has a nine-year-old son with Asperger’s, so I didn’t have to explain the importance of being literal in his explanations.

6.    Another person who came to visit us before the procedure was a child life guidance person (social worker?) who talked Twin A through what he would experience, supplying pictures of what the room would look like, what the people wearing their scrubs AND wearing their scrubs with masks, even bringing the actual gas mask for him to touch.

7.    During the procedure, a nurse sought us out every thirty minutes to tell us exactly what was happening.  We didn’t have to ask, we didn’t have to track someone down – she just came out to tell us.

8.    On the internet main homepage was the information on how to set up a personal webpage on three different free sites for while the child is sick.  Twin A immediately set up a webpage for himself complete with a guest book for visitors to sign.  When he woke up in the recovery room, the first thing he asked for was the keyboard for the internet so he could check his guest book, which by then had about 30 entries!

Bottom line, Twin A had his cardiac ablation on Wednesday and officially no longer has Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome.  It was a long, long, really long day, and we are sooo glad it is behind us.