Hello group!

My son is trying to have a surgery done in Boston with Dr. Scott which he is a MMD specialist, but since my child has a insurance by State of Florida they won't let him have an operation in Boston. They said that because Miami Children's Hospital have a neurosurgeon name Dr. David Sandberg and he has performed an operation for a MMD before there is no reason for my son to have a surgery done in Boston. Now my concern is that I don't think Dr. Sandberg is a specialist in MMD like Dr. Scott in Boston. Does anyone know how I can bring my son to Boston? If it is God's will and my son have to do a surgery in Miami, Does anyone knows about Dr. Sandberg? Once again thank you for your time for reading this message and God bless you guys!

Hi there.

An appeal with the insurance company may be necessary.  I know that process b/c I had to go thru it in order to gain access for my daughter to our surgeon of choice.  However, before pursuing that option, I have a couple of other suggestions for you.

First, there is a recommendation in the doctors/surgeon section of the board for a Dr. Lewis in Gainesville, FL.  The post references his website as:
http://www.neurosurgery.ufl.edu/faculty-staff/stephen-lewis.shtml

Also, I would suggest contacting the Miami physician's office to inquire about his experience with MM.  Specifically, I would want to know what procedure he would propose for the surgery, why that procedure would be his choice, how many times he had performed the surgery, how many incidents of post-surgical stroke he has encountered in his patients and what pre-cautions he takes to prevent it, where & from whom he received his training in the procedure, and what was the nature of the training.  You may need to set a consultation appointment to be able to ask these questions. 

My daughter's pediatric neurosurgeon had served a 2-year post-residency fellowship with Dr. Scott at BCH.  Her fellowship with BCH involved more than just training on the pial synangiosis procedure, but it definitely offered her the exposure to, and opportunity to perform, the procedure under the direction of an experienced physician - so much so that I was completely confident in her ability to successfully handle my daughter's surgeries. 

It is probably a long-shot that the Miami surgeon has similar training, but I think it would definitely be worth your time & effort to ask the question prior to embarking on an insurance appeal.  If he trained with Dr. Scott, that might go a long way toward improving the comfort factor you have with this surgeon.

Best of luck to your son & to you, on this journey!

Jennifer