United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hello,
I am trying to find a doctor at Riley Children's Hospital for Erbs Palsy or someone to help a child with Erbs. Thank you.

I thought I recalled someone posting here before about a dr. there. However, I don't remember the dr's name. I checked the UBPN Med. Resource Dir. and there are no Indiana listings. I also went to www.rileyhospital.org (don't know if you'd already done that) and nothing comes up for Brachial Plexus or Erbs Palsy. Also, if you look by specialty, in Orthopedics, for example, Brachial Plexus is not listed as one of the specialties. You could always call the Neurology or Orthopedics dept. directly. I'd suggest getting a 2nd and m/b even a 3rd opinion elsewhere though since the BP program doesn't seem to be well known if there is one.

~Tina

I posted awhile back concerning our son's Dr. at Riley's Hospital. We have been seeing Alexander Mih, who is from the Indiana Hand Center and comes to Riley every other Friday for clinic and for surgeries.

He did my son's first surgery 4 1/2 years ago and his second 2 years ago this December. He has been working with BPI children doing consult and surgery for the approximately the last 12 - 14 years.

If you want information or to ask any questions, e-mail me and I will be happy to help. I LOVE Dr. Mih! We actually have a friend who is an orthopedic surgeon who did his internship with him, and said if he EVER needed anything done, Dr. Mih would be the only person he would allow to do his surgery. That was enough for us, and I am so glad we listened! He is WONDERFUL!

Hope this helped!

I forgot to ask: where are you from in Indiana?

Everyone's experience is probably different with each doctor, but my daughter's with Dr. Mih was not one I would recomend. He did Alyssa's primary surgery when she was 7 months old. She is now 9. After the primary, we asked about therapy and ROM and it was not recommended by Dr. Mih. During her primary surgery, scar tissue was removed. She was supposed to have the nerve transfers from her legs. After surgery, we noticved bandages on her legs assuming this was done, but the bandages were from a reaction to betadine that blistered her legs. Nobody was upfront about this reaction. Her legs had to stay bandage for 2 months during the summer. Alyssa had also been biting her fingers and hand and we had to coninually beg for an appt. from Dr. Mih. We were told that he could do a nerve graft to repair this, but he didnt know if it would help. Alyssa was hospitalized because of infection of her hand and fingers because it did not phase her to constantly chew them. It made no differce what we wrapped her fingers in. She always managed to chew through it since she had no feeling. After a 3 month wait, we had an appt. when Alyssa was 3. The surgery was scheduled and again, no OT offered or recommended. At the time, I had just gotten a computer and started doing my own research on BPI. I made another appt. for Alyssa and was told by Dr. Mih he could do no more for my daughter! I told him I was taking my daughter to Houston to see Dr. Nath and Dr. Shenaq and I was laughed at while Dr. Mih stood with 3 other doctors in my presence. I was told that he had sent other kids to Texas Childrens Hospital and the results were bad. I asked him about the mod quad procedure and he said he did a similar sugery but Alyssa would not benefit from it, plus the cost was out there! I had to go back to Alyssa's ped who referred us to other doctors who then went on the give my daughter more use of her arm and these doctors have continued to do so. Alyssa finally got the therapy she needed and has a wonderful OT that has worked with us for over 5 years in between all her surgeries. We received a phone call after Alyssa's surgeries in Houston from a research team asking about what she gained from her surgeries at Riley and I was sure to share all the above information with them and let them know that we would return to Houston instead of Riley. Alyssa has so much more function now and I know every case is different. Other may have had amore positive experience with Dr. Mih. As another said, be sure to get that 2nd or even 3rd opinion. If you are in Indiana, you can also check with Shriner's hospital. We did go to Shriner's before we went to Houston, and Alyssa was referred to therapy, but they didn't have a BPI speicialist there at that time so we went for the 3rd opinion.

We tried to See Dr. Mih but were told we would have to wait for over 6mo for an appointment. I would strongly reccomend finding someone that does a team approach with neurologist and therapist instead of a stand alone doctor. We have experinced both and have had much more success with the team approach.

My daughter has had two surgeries with Dr. Mih, and I could not have been more pleased. He does always seem to have students studying under him and I believe that is because he is a fabulous doctor had has a lot of expertise to share.

My daughters surgeries were both successful, and I trust him completely.

I would agree that everyone is different. Dr. Mih prescribed PT / OT right away after seeing our son for the first time. He also keeps prescribing it and has had to talk with our insurance when they thought our son didn't need therapy any longer. He prescribed our splints and our e-stem unit.
He does his surgeries with another doctor, Dr. Klineman of the Indiana Hand Center, not alone.
Even after saying all of this, depending on your child's age, 6 months may be too long to wait, since some surgeries have an optimal time window.