Health

Ground Broken On Hospital For Children In Denver

DENVER (CBS4) ― A new hospital just for children is now under construction in Denver. Ground was broken on the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children Wednesday morning.

The new hospital will be located at 20th and High Street in Denver, right next to Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center. In 2010, the pediatric services and care that have been under the roof of PSL will move to the new facility.

The hospital already takes care of children from all over the region and sometimes from around the world. In one case, two doctors from Greece traveled all the way to Denver to get the care they felt was best for their baby girl.

One-year-old Eleni Baraboutis Tsagalou was born with cystic lung disease.

"This is a very rare anomaly," father Gianni Baraboutis said. "One out of 35,000 pregnancies."

Eleni seemed fine, but she faced the risk of infection and the cyst becoming cancerous later in life.

"It's a complicated issue because the baby's okay and you don't want to do any harm," Gianni said.

Her parents, however, wanted the problem removed. They were against risky open chest surgery that could disfigure her. Months of searching led to the U.S. and Dr. Steven Rothenberg at PSL. He's done about 200 minimally invasive lung surgeries in small children, which is probably five or six times the experience of anyone in the world.

Through just three one-inch incisions, Rothenberg removed only the diseased segment of Eleni's lung.

"She should live a totally normal life," Rothenberg said.

"We are now 24 hours after surgery and we're going to go home, that's it, that says it all, we're going home," Gianni said.

The family is relieved and grateful for the expertise across the ocean.

"It's nice to know that I have an opportunity to help kids all over the world," Rothenberg said.

(© MMVIII CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

---