Possibilities - Children's Hospital Central California

The Romos had no clue what was ailing their daughter, but the super sleuth medical team at Children’sHospital Central California was able to detect the culprit and solve the mystery.About four years ago Diana Romo was a shell of hernormal self at the family’s home in Turlock. No one couldfigure out her mystery illness. Then the teen became tooweak to walk and started feeling a painful sensation inher leg. “I woke up one day and my leg was hurting a lot,”Diana recalls.At Turlock’s Emmanuel Medical Center, savvy doctorsknew she needed specialized pediatric care and sent her toChildren’s Hospital Central California.“The doctors and nurses at Children’s are verytrustworthy,” says her mother, Clemencia. “Theyspecialize in treating kids.”At Children’s Hospital, her condition looked grim.The Children’s team, including hematologist RobertMignacca, M.D. and the expert clinical team investigatedthe root cause of her ailment and discovered she hadDeep Vain Thrombosis, or DVT, in her left leg.DVT is a condition in which a blood clot forms in thedeep veins of the legs, pelvis, or arms. These veins arelocated near the bones and are surrounded by muscle. Itcan be life-threatening because the blood clot can breakloose and travel through the bloodstream to the pulmonaryartery in the lung, where it can block blood flow.Diana RomoClues led doctors to also discover that her clot formed inthe deep veins of her left leg as a result of an undiagnosedinflammatory bowel disease, called Crohn’s disease. It isa chronic inflammatory condition involving the smallintestine and can also affect the entire digestive tract.Symptoms include bleeding, chronic abdominal pain,diarrhea, fever, weight loss and anemia. Twenty percentof all cases of Crohn’s disease affect children.“It was a painful experience for our family, we weren’texpecting it,” recalls her father, Matias. “But the medicalstaff was so professional and kind. When it comes totreating children, they’re the best.”Diana spent five weeks at Children’s for her condition.Dr. Mignacca and the Hospital’s outstanding medicalteam gave her a lifesaving blood transfusion and treatedher existing clot with injections of blood-thinningmedications, called anticoagulants.“There’s lots of activities to do like watch movies,play videogames and play in the playroom.” saysthe soft spoken teenager about her experience atChildren’s Hospital.Due to her lifelong condition, Diana now visits theHematology Practice at Children’s every couple ofmonths. Dr. Mignacca and the Hematology teamkeep a watchful eye on her condition, conduct bloodcounts and adjust her anticoagulants to prevent newclots from forming.She is also treated by Dr. Jose Martinez at the Hospital’sGastroenterology Practice which provides comprehensivecare to children with gastrointestinal and nutritiondisorders, including Chrohn’s disease.Sponsored byRichard & Barbara Petersand FamilyThe young patient was so inspired by her experience atChildren’s that she wants to join the transport crew onAir George, the same lifesaving helicopter that rushed herto Children’s. A recent graduate of Pitman High School,the 17-year-old plans to attend Merced College andpursue a career as a nurse practitioner.The Players: Dr. Robert Mignacca and Children’s HematologyPractice and Dr. Jose Martinez of the Gastroenterology Practiceat Children’s