Dylan Dickey

Dylan Dickey's Story

http://iesportsnews.com/hs-football-heritage-upland-cif-ss-playoff-game-postponed-after-heritage-player-collapses/ 

Dylan  suffered sudden cardiac arrest on Friday 11/02/18 before a CIF football game in Upland, CA. He was taken to the nearest hospital, who didn't have the specialized resources to treat him.  The staff called our Kaiser insurance and asked where they should send him and were told transfer him to Loma Linda University Children's Hospital.  Around midnight Dylan was transferred and admitted to the Loma Linda's Pediatric ICU Cardiac Unit. 

From the moment he arrived, Dylan received excellent care from the team of doctors who began diagnostic testing right away to find the cause for the cardiac arrest.  By Sunday, LLUCH doctors had already discovered that it was likely caused by a heart rhythm disorder and determined the next step would be an electrophysiology study to confirm their suspicion of Long QT Syndrome and to proceed with an ICD placement.   However, at around 11am on Monday Nov. 5th,  Kaiser's Outside Utilization Review Services department called LLUCH and determined that Dylan was "stable enough" to move an hour and a half away to their Kaiser facility in Los Angeles for treatment.   Dylan was in ICU for his entire stay at Loma Linda and continued to have irregular heart rhythms throughout Tuesday night before his ICD surgery on Wednesday. 

We refused the transfer because we felt that Kaiser had multiple opportunities to diagnose and treat Dylan, and failed to properly do so.  Dylan had been seeing a pediatric cardiac specialist at Kaiser Riverside for nearly two years to try to find the cause of the severe, unexplained blackouts he's suffered since the age of 11.  The specialist did some initial diagnostic tests in early 2017 that included an EKG and a stress test that was never completed. The Kaiser specialist prescribed him medication for low blood pressure, but the blackouts continued.  Every time we saw the specialist at Kaiser, we reported the blackouts and asked for more diagnostic testing.  Not only did they refuse to do any more tests for Dylan,  but we've  discovered that none of the blackouts or test requests were recorded in his medical records or in notes from all of those cardiology visits.

Since we would not allow them to transfer Dylan, Kaiser has refused to pay for his stay and treatment at LLUCH.   Dylan has been to two post care appointments with his doctor at Loma Linda,  but we were told today that they cannot see him any longer because Kaiser will not pay and Loma Linda does not was us to incur any more financial burden for us trying to cover the post care costs.  Since we work for a school district, our open enrollment isn't until June so we do not have the option to change health care plans for several more months.  Even though we are extremely untrusting of Kaiser now, we feel we have no choice but to take Dylan there for the post care he needs. 

Dylan's medical costs for the life-saving diagnosis and treatment he received at Loma Linda will likely reach to hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Although Dylan has much to learn about his diagnosis and implanted defibrillator, he is happy to be recuperating at home.  We are very lucky that Dylan survived this and that his recovery is going well. 

Thanks to those who have already helped in so many ways.  Please continue to share & pray.  <3

With gratitude,

the Dickey family