The Impact

I had my 20 week ultrasound in February of 2001. This would be our sixth child. All of the kids happened to have the day off so they were home excitedly waiting to learn if they would have a new brother or sister. The ultrasound could not tell my husband, Larry Sr and I if we would have a boy or a girl because all of the baby's organs were on the outside of his body, floating inside my uterus, & our baby had a gaping hole from all around the rib cage to his rectum. They did find all of the life threatening medical issues that our son Larry Jr would be fighting his entire life. I was told I would miscarry. That there was no way this baby would survive birth. 2 weeks. A month. I was told it would be better if I ended the pregnancy. Our son John, only 9 at the time said, "We would rather have a baby with special needs, than no baby at all."

Dr Park called our house after my amniocentesis & said that our baby was a boy! He spoke with me and consoled, listened to my crying. He educated us & shared all they could do for our baby at Mott. I spoke with him nearly every couple of weeks until my C-section. He was always so patient & listened to every one of my questions no matter how redundant. He's been Larry's surgeon since birth along with Dr Hirschl. He's been a constant in Larry's life for more than 23 years. There are times my husband & I have joked that Dr Hirschl & Dr Park are "Larry's creators," They know Larry inside out, & we sometimes joke that they're more his parents than we are. Larry Jr is full of grief as we all are at the loss of Larry's friend PARK, as Larry has always called him. My husband & I have truly said that often when we look at Larry Jr. we think of Hirschl and Park. Together they have saved Larry's life, operated on him more than 100 times, & performed surgeries that had never been done before, were longer than 18 hours and lasted several days. Park means so much to thousands of children & families at Mott. Larry is just one story. One life that Dr Park impacted. But there are many, many, many more. We cannot imagine the grief that John's wife Helen and their children are feeling and we give them all our love and prayers. We will miss you Park. Always. Forever.