Doctors operate on wrestler despite mom’s objections

The 16-year-old Chichester High School wrestler who suffered a spine injury during a wrestling practice underwent surgery on his neck Friday morning, said his mother, who objected to the procedure.

Vermell Mitchell, a practitioner of naturopathic medicine who wanted to use herbs and physical therapy to heal her son, Mazeratti, said that he went into the operating room at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital about 9:35 a.m.

"Of course, I'm upset by it," she said.

She said the family's rights had been violated because she and her husband were "not able to have our son treated in the way we thought was appropriate."

Delaware County child-welfare officials were granted temporary custody of Mazeratti after his parents rejected doctors' recommendations that pins and plates be inserted in his spinal column to lessen the risk of additional injury.

Thursday, after listening to arguments from both sides in a closed hearing, Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge Mary Alice Brennan ruled that the surgery could proceed.

The Mitchells' lawyer, Michael Nix, said that the family would appeal and ask for a stay of the order, but Vermell Mitchell said Friday that the family had not had time to file because "they proceeded with the surgery so fast."

Mazeratti's mother said that she had asked Friday morning that her son's doctors use an MRI and X-rays "to see if there had been any improvement, because he is moving around better now . . . We felt if they really had his best interest at heart, they would have done that, but they did not."

Hospital spokeswoman Jackie Kozloski declined to comment, saying that privacy laws did not allow her to talk about Mazeratti's "care plan or treatment."

Vermell Mitchell said she planned after the surgery to use herbal remedies to help her son recover. "He's been pumped up with all kinds of drugs - anesthetics and other things - and I will have to use herbs to counteract them," she said.