Holbrook Infant Safe At Home After Rare Life-Saving Surgery

At just seven weeks old, Dominic Belluscio has been through a lot.

Since entering the world on Jan. 21, the Holbrook infant has spent much of his short life in hospitals, undergoing treatment for abdominal pain that only seemed to worsen with time.

Despite medication and a change in formula, Dominic's stomach had swelled up, becoming hard as a rock. His parents, Joseph and Linda Belluscio, admitted him to Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip at the urging of a gastroenterologist.

Inital tests indicated that Dominic was suffering from a mass in his abdomen. He was given a blood transfusion. Shortly after, he was seen by Pediatric Surgeon Dr. Vinci Jones, who performed exploratory surgery.

“Dominic had a potentially life-threatening infection,” said Dr. Jones. “He was very sick when he came to us. If we had not operated when we did he might have had a very bad outcome.”

Dominic underwent a four-hour operation in which Dr. Jones drained three cups of fluid from his stomach, and removed his appendix, which had swelled to three times its normal size.

Three weeks after the surgery, on March 20, Dominic was discharged from the hospital and finally went home with his parents.

“We are so grateful to Dr. Jones, the nurses in the pediatric intensive care unit and the entire staff at Good Samaritan,” Linda Belluscio said in a statement. “From this point on, nothing Dominic does will upset us!”