Kailen Taylor

Kailen Taylor's Story of Care

Kailen Taylor’s urological condition was never life-threatening. His condition never merited an emergency medical invention of any kind. But to hear “Kai’s” mother talk about her experience at our hospital, one would think that we had rescued her son from death’s door.

Alexis Taylor has known many brands of healthcare and visited many hospitals. Having this experience under her belt makes her the ultimate consumer of healthcare – she knows what she is looking for and she is a harsh critic when hospitals don’t deliver.

So, when the word “surgery” was mentioned as a possibility for remedying her son’s condition, she never hesitated for a second. She knew immediately that, if Kai needed surgery, she would make sure that his surgery occurred at our hospital.

At four months of age, Kai underwent urological surgery in our hospital's main operating rooms, located in our state-of-the-art Burtie Green Bettingen Surgery Center.

By Alexis’ account, the young parents could not have been more amazed about how they were treated, about the care that their son received, about the respect that they were shown, and about how quickly their baby boy was able to return to life as normal.

More about Kailen's Story

Alexis Taylor Kailen's Mom	Chester Koh, M.D. Kai's Surgeon

Kailen's Mom Tells Her Story 

“When Kai was born, the doctors examining him told us that his left testicle was hardened and that there was something wrong. They told us that they would need to do some tests, but that there was a possibility that we would need to have surgery performed for him really quickly

“As soon as Kai is old enough to talk, I’m going to have him saying “I Love Children's Hospital!”                        - Alexis Taylor

“Thankfully, the physician who was advising us referred us to Children's Hospital as one of his top options for Kai’s procedure. So, we received our referral and went there right away for our first visit with Dr. Koh.

“Honestly, I have to say that Dr. Koh was THE BEST!  I had anticipated, since we were young parents and this was our first child, that we would be “talked at” by our son's surgeon. But Dr. Koh was not like that at allHe sat down with us and really explained everything about Kai's surgery and made sure that he reassured us every step of the wayHe told me exactly what was going to happen

“Dr. Koh was very patient with us. He acted as if he was putting himself in our place as the parents. He let us know every detail of the procedure – step by stepHe told us about the extra precautions he would take during the surgery to make sure that Kai was going to be OK – not just as a baby, but on into adulthood

It was clear to me that this was not a doctor that I would have to think on behalf of – instead he was thinking of things regarding Kai’s life that I hadn’t even considered yet. Dr. Koh didn’t just reassure us about the surgery itself and that everything would be OK. He reassured us about Kai’s health for the rest of his life.

About the Surgery

The day of Kai’s surgery went very smoothly. We went into the hospital in the morning. We had several different people that we needed to meet with before the surgery took place. After we sent Kai off into surgery, the nurses handed us a beeper and told us that they would page us when Kai was out of surgery so that we could be with him when he awakened

They told us that the surgery could take as long as 1 ½ hours. My husband and I went downstairs to the cafeteria to get a bite to eat and pass the time. However, within 20 minutes, the beeper went off

So, of course, we were thinking that something must have gone wrong. We raced up to the floor to see what had happened and the nurses told us "He's finished. His surgery went really well, everything is fine, and he is recovering.” 

What was even more amazing was how quickly Kai was back to normal. I had anticipated that he would be mad at the world but, in about two hours, he was already wanting to play and in good spirits and back to his normal baby self. He fussed more about his circumcision than he did about this surgery.

Start to finish, I think we were at Children's Hospital for a total of only three hours on the day of surgery. That included Dr. Koh talking to me, the anesthesiologist talking to me, the nurses talking to me and the staff giving me a booklet that had information about what to do after we went home. Everyone was incredibly reassuring about the entire experience.

Kai healed up great. His stitches dissolved nicely and we had one follow-up visit with Dr. Koh and he reassured me that Kai was doing wonderfully, and that was it!  We went back to life as usual.

Kailen's Surgeon Tells His Story 

“Kailen was referred to us by a local pediatrician with whom our Division of Urology has a long-standing working relationship.

Our goal with performing surgery for Kailen was to safely and effectively remove the left testicular remnant and perform a procedure to ensure that the right testicle would not twist as well. Kailen’s surgery went well as did his recovery.

Trained to Provide Care for Kids

Although, for our team, Kailen’s case was a fairly routine procedure, performing it at a hospital for children can make a big difference, both for our young patients, and for their families. All of our hospital staff (including surgeons, nurses, attending physicians, etc.) are all specifically trained to provide care that is child-safe and child-friendly, something that isn’t always the case at other hospitals.

An example of the extra steps that we take to help patients and families feel more comfortable with surgery is to invite them to take a pre-surgical tour to see what the process of the surgery will be like for both children and their parents.

Special Expertise

Patient outcomes data has shown that children have better health outcomes when their care is provided at a pediatric facility and by staff who have significant expertise in pediatric-specific are. Our Division performs the highest number of pediatric urological surgeries in Southern California and in the Southwestern United States for children.

In addition, our close collaboration with the Division of Anesthesiology means that each of our patients is guaranteed care by an anesthesiologist trained in performing care for children.

Training the Caregivers of Tomorrow

Because of our significant contribution to urological care for children, residents from other hospitals come to us to receive training to provide care for children. For Kai’s surgery, I was assisted by Dr. Chandrasoma, a resident joining us from the University of Southern California through our pediatric residency program.  

You Can Be a Hero for Patients Like Kailen

Make a Gift 

Kai's Mom Shares Her Reasons for Supporting Our Care

"When I realized that I actually wanted to bring my child to Children's Hospital, I felt that I just had to do my part to let people know. 

"There are plenty of hospitals that you can go to where it is clear that the staff make no attempt to have a personal connection with the patients, much less the families of the patients. And when staff have no interest in the patients, from my perspective, that is when mistakes start to happen–that’s where personal information gets mishandled-that’s where the wrong medications are given to the wrong people.

"I would have to say that my entire experience at Children's Hospital was amazing. You can really tell that the people care about what they are doing. They care about you as a person. They care about your child. To me, that is what I need to know as a parent is going to make a difference in my child's care.

"So, when I experience a place where people care about you and your child, it makes me just want to do whatever I can to not only tell them what a great job that they are doing, but I also want to do whatever I can to let the people who support this hospital know that they are helping a great hospital with great people who really did provide great care for my baby."

Please support care for children like Kai.