Little Savannah Snodgrass — a 7-month-old Texas girl who was stricken with a life-threatening brain tumor — was released from Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston Saturday night after undergoing emergency surgery 11 days ago.
The six-hour surgery on July 11 came after her health insurance company reversed a decision that had denied her surgery at her family’s preferred hospital.
“We’re so happy to have her home,” the baby’s mother, Tessa Snodgrass, said on Monday. “She is doing great.”
Doctors removed the closely-monitored tumor, which had grown in size since it was discovered in March on the left temporal lobe of her brain. In the days that followed, a team of specialists overseeing post-operative care for Savannah were able to stabilize her from a seizure due to swelling and bruising on the brain, her family said.
Tessa Snodgrass, of Georgetown, Texas, said doctors are confident they removed the entire growth. The family is waiting on further testing to determine whether the tumor was malignant.
Tessa and her husband, Travis Snodgrass, will return to the hospital next week with Savannah for a follow-up appointment and to receive results from the pathology report, she said.
“Their only concern right now is getting the pathology results and keeping her from having any seizures,” Snodgrass said of her daughter, who is at home recovering on nine medications.
“She is definitely in great hands,” Snodgrass said. “We are so grateful for that … I can’t imagine going through this anywhere else.”
Following a FoxNews.com report, the insurance company Superior HealthPlan reversed its decision not to pay the acclaimed Texas Children’s Hospital for the emergency surgery, claiming the doctors there were out-of-network. Savannah’s parents fought back, saying the same doctors had been treating the little girl for months, monitoring the tumor and preparing to remove it.
Superior HealthPlan said the day of the surgery that it will cover Savannah’s operation at Texas Children’s “for continuity reasons.”
“Our No. 1 priority has been to deliver the best health outcome for this child, as it is for all of our members,” the company said in a statement to FoxNews.com. “Superior is happy to have identified a solution that ensures that this child receives continued care from the provider established prior to their enrollment with Superior. We will continue to assist this family in making sure they receive the care they need.
“While we have complete confidence that our in-network providers have the expertise and resources to give all of our members the individual care they need, we approach every member’s care individually. The importance of maintaining continuity of care combined with the complex and timely concerns of the family were critical to this decision,” the statement said.
