Hi, Mary! I believe that Dr. Black, who was mentioned in a post a few days ago, is Dr. Keith L. Black, at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, CA. His bio can be found at: http://www.csmc.edu/mdnsi/1088.asp In doing the Google search for this info, it appears to me that he is definitely a surgeon to consider. He has an exceptionally high success rate. It will take more than diet alone to deal with this situation. My very best wishes to your friends and their son on a successful outcome. Jane