Ian Hoover's Surgery

Hello, we are the McPherson family & we are raising funds for Ian Hoover's next surgery. Ian has already had a few surgeries in his young life (he turns 3 in December) and is now facing urgent surgery to relieve pressure in his head and prevent vision loss and complications. Ian's story is below; please consider donating to help this sweet family!

From Katie Hoover:

In December 2019, our precious son, Ian, was born with an unexpected condition known as Muenke Syndrome. This syndrome causes skull sutures to fuse prematurely, thus limiting the brain’s ability to grow and expand. Ian’s case, unfortunately, was particularly complex: four of his skull sutures had fused together, requiring multiple surgeries to expand his skull and relieve the pressure on his brain. We are grateful to be living in an era when surgical intervention is possible: without these surgeries, Ian would be facing severe developmental delays, vision issues, including potential blindness, and coordination difficulties.

Ian has already had two surgeries in his first year of life. We were supposed to return this fall to discuss the next surgery that was potentially planned for after his 3 rd birthday. Two weeks before Ian’s appointment to discuss his surgical treatment plan, we were suddenly notified that our previous surgeon had left the practice. This left us with great anxiety about having to find a new surgeon. Due to some previous concerns regarding Ian’s course of treatment thus far and now the abrupt notification that we would need a new surgeon, we decided to seek the advice of Dr. Jeffrey Fearon, a world- renowned craniofacial surgeon located in Dallas, Texas. At this appointment, we received some discouraging news. Dr. Fearon expressed significant concerns about the course of Ian’s treatment thus far: he observed that Ian’s head circumference is far smaller and flatter than it should be at this point, and that MRI analysis of his optic nerve sheaths shows that elevated intracranial pressure is already

present, an issue that was not caught by our previous surgeon. Dr. Fearon believes that Ian needs to undergo a cranial vault remodeling surgery as soon as possible in order to avoid potential permanent damage to his vision and correct some concerns caused by his previous care.

We are confident that Ian would be in good hands with Dr. Fearon: he is the only craniofacial surgeon in the area whose whole practice is dedicated to this type of surgery. He performs these surgeries five days per week, more than any other surgeon. He can perform the surgery in less than half the time of most surgeons and Ian would only require a 48-hour hospital stay rather than the 5-7 days quoted to us by our previous surgeon. Also, his unique, innovative techniques have resulted in much better long-termm outcomes for his patients compared to other surgeons. However, Dr. Fearon is out-of-network with our insurance, and we are facing a significant financial burden if our insurance doesn’t approve him as an in-network provider. We are trying our best to appeal to the insurance but we don’t know if or when this

would be approved. Ian is scheduled to have surgery on December 16. Thank you for your prayers and support!