On a superficial level, traveling with expensive, high-tech cameras, lights and polished network correspondents can make you feel pretty important. But a recent assignment in Durham, NC put my ego in it’s place. (An occasional reality check is good for all of us).
As we usually do, we arrived at Duke Children’s Hospital pushing our cart stocked with lights, microphones, cameras and other necessary broadcast equipment. Our crew was made up of a photographer, audio technician, Atlanta Bureau Correspondent Jonathan Serrie and myself, the all-important producer. Quite an impressive sight walking through the door on most occasions. But when entering a children’s hospital where medical miracles are performed, I had to check my ego at the door.
We were at Duke to cover an experimental procedure that might be able to help three year old Zoey Komninos. Zoey was born with cerebral palsy. She can’t walk or talk and her parents feed her several times a day through a feeding tube. Melanie and Jim Komninos saved the blood from Zoey’s umbilical cord when she was born. For the past three years, the family has been paying a private laboratory to keep the frozen blood in safe storage.
Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg has been working with cord blood since 1993 and hopes the stem cells in Zoey’s cord blood might help her condition by reversing some of the damage to her brain cells. That day, Dr. Kurtzberg was infusing the cord blood into Zoey’s body and we were there to cover the procedure.
It wasn’t long into our shoot that I realized the buzz of activity going on around us. It’s activity that happens every day, without fail, even after the network TV crew is gone. The third floor of Duke Children’s Hospital at Duke University Medical Center is ground zero for many kids in the fight of their young lives against cancer, leukemia and other deadly diseases. We were in the outpatient area, the place where many of these kids come to get life-saving medicine, chemotherapy and medical support from the doctors and nurses who work this floor every day. The room was filled with small children, some in diapers. Even a teenage boy who probably would rather be in gym class this day. They were sitting in recliners or lying on beds, many of them hooked to IVs and machines monitoring their vital signs. I was most impressed with the staff on the floor. Doctors, nurses, counselors, even a guitar wielding man with a goatee, who was there to entertain and possibly bring a smile to those little faces. They all played a vital role in making sure that these kids had the best care the medical community could offer.
I am always in awe of those who work in medicine. I can only imagine how many years they spent in school to learn the intricate workings of the human body and all the medicines and procedures they have to study on a regular basis just to do their jobs. But what amazes me the most is the personal side of practicing medicine. In the face of very sick kids, frustrated and worried parents and a demanding medical system that never shuts down, these doctors and nurses focus on being human first. I saw it in Dr. Kurtzberg who wore a simple t-shirt with a dog on it and used princess stickers to make the medical equipment less scary to already frightened kids. I saw it in Kristin, one of the nurses who wore bright red scrubs and a warm smile while helping little Zoey and other kids through their procedures. And I saw it in Wendy, another nurse who took time out from her rounds to give me a Sesame Street bandage to cover a cut on my index finger.
On Sunday night at 7 PM (Eastern) and throughout Monday morning, check out the story that Jonathan Serrie and I put together about little Zoey Komninos and her experimental cord blood infusion. Her parents know the procedure may not even help Zoey at all. Dr. Kurtzberg was very clear to make sure that all our viewers understood that this is not a miracle cure, just an experimental procedure that might improve some of her symptoms. Despite what happens with Zoey, her parents are happy to have a beautiful and loving little girl.
We all have important jobs. Even my job makes a difference in people’s lives every now and then. But I have to hand it to the folks who work at Duke Children’s Hospital. If it weren’t for their knowledge, hard work and personal touch, kids like Zoey and that teenage boy who would have rather been in gym class might lose the fight against horrible diseases no one should have to suffer, at any age.
