Kids & Family

A Mother's Instinct, Doctor's Skill Saves Sayville 3-Year-Old

Owen Madden is back home after a nasty fall thanks to quick response by his mom and a Southside Hospital neurosurgeon.

A three-year-old Sayville boy is back home and healthy after a life-saving medical effort and his mom's motherly instinct following a nasty fall in the family’s kitchen.

Owen Madden was doing what most young boys like to do, play the role of an imaginary superhero, in this case Spiderman, while hanging out with his mom in the kitchen.

But then he slipped and took a bad fall, hitting his head hard on the wooden floor. His first scream of pain told his mother the fall wasn’t just one of the usual young boys endure and shake off.

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Rachelle Madden said she knew instinctively that something was very wrong as Owen quickly became nauseous and lethargic after the stumble so the family rushed him to the emergency room at Southside Hospital, according to a hospital press release.

At the hospital Owen was treated by Dr. Salvatore Insinga, DO, the director of neurosurgery who conducted a computed tomography (CT) scan that revealed the three-year-old had suffered an epidural hematoma.

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“This kind of hematoma is a type of traumatic brain injury in which buildup of blood occurs between the skull and the dura mater, which is the thick membrane covering the brain," said Insinga. :Owen had suffered a fracture from his fall, which caused a small artery in his brain to burst. This pool of blood was pushing against the top part of Owen’s brain and it needed to be treated immediately,” recounts Insinga in the press account.

Insinga made a five-centimeter incision through Owen's skull, which allowed him to remove the pool of blood.  The one-hour surgery was a complete success without any neurological deficits, according to the hospital.  

Once Owen recovered he was transferred to North Shore-LIJ’s Cohen Children’s Medical Center for post-operative care. He was discharged the next day and is now back playing Spiderman.

For Rachel Madden the experience confirmed that moms must listen to that mystical mother instinct.

“Be observant.  As a mother, you know when your child is crying to get one over on you, but you have this maternal connection with them,” she said. “I knew from the first cry that it was too long and it was always in the back of my head that something wasn’t right.  If you have that feeling, go with your heart.”


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