Clayton Cothran
Clayton Cothran was born with a melanoma lesion on his right ear causing his ear to have a dark brown coloring. The lesion would remain dormant for several years, but doctors knew that they would one day need to remove the lesion due to its potential to spread and could potentially affect Clayton fatally. Because it was important that Clayton not touch his ear after the surgery, doctors watched and waited until he was old enough to cooperate.
When he reached an appropriate age, Clayton had surgery at a local hospital in Nashville in the summer of 2001. His family and doctors thought all was well, but soon after Clayton developed a very serious infection from the surgery called pseudomonas. Clayton immediately was sent to Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital to be treated by the pediatric infectious disease doctors and Vanderbilt’s pediatric plastic surgery team. As a result of all of these surgeries, he became well acquainted with the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital there and spent a significant amount of time there.
According to his doctors, Clayton had the worst case of pseudomonas they had witnessed at the hospital in 25 years. Clayton stayed in the hospital for 1 week and was treated with the most powerful medications available. They continued rehabilitation at home for another 30 days that consisted of 4 hours of drugs delivered via an IV in his arm every other day. After healing from pseudomonas, Clayton had additional plastic surgery to further reconstruct his ear.
Because he spent so much time at Children’s Hospital he was nominated to be a member of our Pediatric Advisory Council. The council was founded to assist in the planning of the new hospital from the patients’ perspective. Seeing the amazing Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, we can see he did a fantastic job! Thanks Clayton!
See Clayton's Support for VCH by Clicking Here
