clusively that I do have a mutation
that causes MH, and so my children
have a 50% chance of susceptibility,
too.
It was actually satisfying on some
level to get that diagnosis, because in
addition to protecting my son from
harm, my parents learned definitively
what had happened to my brother 44
years before. It gave them closure.
They finally knew.
I also thought of the doctors who were helpless to save Will. How
heartbreaking must it have been to come out of the OR and tell some-
body their child died — and not be able to tell them why. I was
encouraged that we'd come so far since then in our understanding of
MH.
Raising public awareness
Let me qualify my comments. I'm not an expert in malignant hyperther-
mia. Thankfully, a growing number of physicians and researchers are.
Me? I'm just a guy who's MH-susceptible who's also a physician.
I'm probably more aware of MH than the average surgeon. But I
don't inquire about it with my patients pre-operatively, beyond talking
about the general risks of anesthesia. An MH screening falls under the
supervision of the anesthesia team. I don't want to muddy the waters
there, and I also don't want to information-overload my patient.
While I'm not directly involved with the Malignant Hyperthermia
Association of the United States (mhaus.org) in any active working
capacity, I'm so impressed by their work. If you walk through a lot of
hospital ORs or outpatient surgery centers, you'll see posters from
M A R C H 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 6 7
My hope is that we
can screen all
patients for MH
with a blood test
before surgery.
