My name is Benjamin Anderson, and I am the Chief Executive
Officer of Kearny County Hospital, which is a
comprehensive county health complex in southwest Kansas. Our
infant adopted daughter was hospitalized in our rural
community with accelerated heart rate. It was not a situation
that our local family physician had ever seen in the emergency
department, and so right away recognized that this was unusual
and probably needed a higher level of care. My wife and
Naomi, went on an airplane to Wichita, Kansas, to a hospital
there. And we really weren't told what was going on with our
daughter, other than the fact that she had an accelerated
heart rate and they were giving her a drug called Adenosine for
some condition. After about five hours, a pediatric cardiologist
showed up and introduced himself and asked how we were doing. And
I said, "Well with all due respect, sir, we're scared and
frustrated. What's going on with our daughter?" And when I asked
him where he'd been he said, "Well I've been managing this
over the phone since three in the morning, I wouldn't have
done anything different if I was here." Right as he was
explaining that, a pediatric intensivist came in and said,
"Doctor, we can't get a central line in on this little
girl--implying our daughter-- we need you right now, this is very
urgent." And so he left mid-conversation and that's
really the explanation that we were given. Just shortly after
that, the intensivist came back in and said, "If this was my
daughter, I would get her to Denver children's hospital right
now. This is arguably the best hospital in the United States
for children with cardiac issues." We said, call the
plane, get it over here. Flight for Life Colorado showed up
about and hour and a half later, and still we were unsure of how
serious the situation was. And then an ER physician showed up
who was a friend of ours, and was not working there. She came
in and said, "Your daughter is very sick. Are you aware of
this?" I said, "What do you mean?" And she said, "Her life's
in danger." And I said, "No, people had not made us aware of
that." And I looked at the Flight for Life nurse at that
time, and I said, "What are the chances that our daughter codes
on this flight?" And she said, "They're very real. In fact, we
don't know if she's well enough to ship her." I was not told
that our daughter's situation was that critical, nor was
Kayla, nor was my wife. And so this was alarming to us. And we
really realized at that time, this is serious. This might not
go well. For 70 minutes we sailed above the clouds. And we
got to this emergency room here, and it was like a television
show. There was this team of a dozen people that were waiting
at the ED for us, and they had rehearsed this, you could tell.
I'm watching this happen, she looked over at me--the Flight
for Life nurse--as we were running down the hall, and said,
"You see this lady?" She said, "If there's anyone in the United
States that you want taking care of your daughter in this
situation, it's that lady right there. She's a boss." And sure
enough, we're sitting in this cardiac ICU room, room one, I'll
never forget it. Like a quarterback, she has the play,
she knows what's going on on the field, and she's updated. Flight
for Life nurse gives her the report and she says, "Okay,
intubate." And then she sits down with me, and she leans
forward and she said, "Okay Benjamin my name is Shannon
Buckvold, and I'm the pediatric cardiologist in charge of your
daughter's care and your daughter is very sick. To save
her life we're going to have to administer a drug that's going
to restart her heart. And to do that, it may send her into
cardiac arrest. And if that happens, I'm going to have to
put her on an extreme form of life support. And I don't know
that it's gonna happen--it might not, it might be just fine. But
in the event that it does, I'm not gonna have time to have this
conversation with you again. Is this okay with you?" I remember
saying, "Whatever you say is what I'm gonna go with. Thank
you for involving me in that." And so she sat down with me 90
seconds later and said, "Hey good news--she's intubated, her
oxygen sats are back up to 100%, her breathing is fine, her heart
rate is now normal, she's no longer in immediate danger. And
I just want to let you know that we're gonna proceed this way if
her body reacts this way, we'll proceed this way, if her body
reacts that way, we'll proceed that way. I just don't want you
to be surprise. Is this okay with you?" Is this plan of care
okay with you?" And then the second day happened where we
were still here. And a woman walked in who said, "Hi. I'm an
infection prevention specialist, and I'm here to make sure that
your daughter doesn't get sick. I'm gonna make sure that your
room stays very clean and it's sterilized, and so to do that,
to really keep her safe, I'm gonna need your commitment to
make sure that you're sanitizing your hands coming in and out of
the room. We just need your participation in this. Can I
have your commitment to join us in this way?" I said, "Yes."
Then she proceeded to clean the toilets and mop the floors and
clean the countertops. She was a housekeeper. And she took her
role in my daughter's care that seriously. Then it began to
occur to me, this is systemic. This is a culture where everyone
sees their role in saving lives as important. Naomi was
discharged after six days. Everybody in six days walked in,
introduced themselves, told us why they were there, told us
their role in our daughter's care, and asked us if we
understood that. And that was remarkable to me that everybody
thought enough of us to include us. The communication really
complimented the excellent care that we were receiving. This
story for Children's Hospital Colorado is a victory lap. But I
think it also reminded me of the importance of practice. This
victory didn't happen without years and years of refining
processes and practicing and rehearsing. And for a little
girl like my daughter, that's the difference between being a
family of five and a family of six right now. And without this
place, we would've lost her. To begin with, our physicians
didn't know about Children's Hospital Colorado. All they knew
was to call the nearest tertiary center in Wichita and try to get
someone on the phone that might be able to help us with
something like this. The second thing was there was an access
issue. Even if Children's Hospital had wanted to fly in to
pick up our daughter, there wasn't a runway within 50 miles
that could have accommodated their plane. The tough thing for
me to deal with, was as the CEO of that hospital, that's on me,
too. And I had to live with the idea that we almost lost our
daughter because of systems that were not in place that I was
responsible for. Any of us that are in this health care industry
have a moral responsibility to constantly and relentlessly seek
out improved better coordinated systems. And if rural
communities lack resources, let's find a way for those
resources to be located and placed there. If systems around
a tertiary center like CHC, and those rural communities don't
exist and we have a moral responsibility to work
relentlessly to develop them. Because at the end of the day,
there was a face on the other side of it, and her name is 00:07:28.406,00:00:00.000 Naomi.