Dr. Kevin Loras Havlik MD

Dr Havlik began as my pediatrician the day I had my 4th child in 1991 and remained our children's Dr until my young est son was almost 19yo. I had 6 children in 10yrs, as well as 5 foster children over a 10yr period. My birth children had conditions ranging from extreme anxiety to major trauma injuries and chronic esoteric diseases including major system dysfunctions and organ failures. Two were born terminally ill. Only one did not survive. She did however live vibrantly and much longer than was ever anticipated. Dr Havlik was incredibly knowledgeable, quick to connect us with needed specialists and resources. He always knew the testing to pursue for answers. Many of my children's conditions could never be identified, not even through orphan disease databases. But even when we were flying blind Dr Havlik was a strong advocate and partner in caring for my children's many needs! He is skilled and able to think outside of the box when nothing "traditional" worked. He continues to advocate for my children to have the best quality of life and the highest standard of care no matter how challenging the case. Without his advocacy and his ability to stop, think through and reason out a possible approach - beyond what was considered standard at the time - my children would never have survived and thrived throughout the profound challenges they have faced! He was also an advocate for me! He took the time to explain the medicine behind his choices and to train me to do more care at home to protect my children from infectious exposures at the hospital or everyday life. His approach meant I had his full support and confidence in doing things to help my children I never imagined I had the skills to do. And he defended vigorously the care I provided my children as well as the persistence with which we were seeking out the best solutions by reaching out to other drs in other states who may have seen cases or conditions similar to what we were trying to treat. He is the most open professional I have ever met! Open to new ideas or alternatives regardless of their source. He is open to inviting other drs (specialists and even colleagues in their office) to add their evaluations. He consults freely and with out ego with other professionals! He knows which colleagues can "hear" or recognize certain features better than his own natural abilities on certain specific aspects... so he Always asked those drs to step in and offer their insights! I knew with Dr Havlik that he was personally uncertain at all, he would make sure my child was also evaluated by someone whose skills he trusted. He took the fear out of the most frightening experiences of my time as a young mother. I was never alone in this journey. He instilled confidence in me. He readily admitted if he did not know. Then he pursued to find the answers and call me to make updates based on the new information. He is the most humble, knowledgeable, up with current medical knowledge and treatments (often before they have even been published yet), supportive, and openly collaborative Dr I have ever worked with! He was incredibly patient at taking the time with me to explain the underlying dynamics and why some things work and others will not. He will even try things I would like to at least see if it could help.... sometimes they did. Sometimes they did not. But he never once let me feel like I had failed. We just added the information we learned from each attempt and kept moving forward. I could never have imagined a Dr who would be this engaged at a personal level with our families high level of needs. He knew always each child's complex histories and current concerns throughout the 20yrs he cared for my family! He willingly worked with me from home so often!! Checking to see how I was doing as well as my children... asking about responses to new treatments ... and making adjustments anytime the results were not as good as he had hoped. There were times my youngest daughter, who did pass away, was in the ICU facing difficult odds. He called me to say: here's what's going on and what no one has been willing to say to you. He has come to see my children inpatient to check on me and on their progress, even when he was not the admitting Dr. And when we were in the finally months, he came to tearfully assure me, she had lived an incredibly full life, able to have experiences beyond what most in her condition ever have... because I had been such a devoted mother and advocate! That because of the effort I had persistently made to advocate for her care, I should have No guilt and no doubt that she lived an amazing life due to all I had done for her. Which has carried me for years! It's hard to not second guess yourself when no matter how hard you worked your child still passes away. All children should be so lucky as to have Dr Havlik as their pediatrician. You will rarely ever encounter someone so willing to be as invested in your family's well being and care as I found in Dr Havlik. He was my partner in raising my children against some incredibly difficult odds. I would not have 5 living thriving adult children without his diligent efforts on their behalf!! *i have no connection with Dr Havlik outside of my relationship with him as my children pediatrician. But my children each had extraordinary medical needs which he treated with as much devotion as if they were his own. His commitment is unmatched. He invests in the whole well being of the child and the family through regular average experiences to even profoundly traumatic or life threatening conditions. I wish he were able to train every other pediatrician on how to care for the full needs a child could face.

Great experience.