Emergency heroes
Alta Bates Summit anesthesiologist John Donovan,
M.D., was visiting New York City on September 11, 2001, and
when he rushed to a lower Manhattan hospital to try to help
disaster victims, he found himself in the midst of “a
lot of responders and very little organization.” When
the massive earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, 2010,
the big-hearted Dr. Donovan again offered his medical skills
in hopes of aiding victims. This time his good intentions
were matched by good fortune and exemplary collaboration — in
the form of Sutter Health and its initial 15-member surgical
team, including himself and other clinical volunteers from
Alta Bates Summit and two other Bay Area affiliate hospitals.
They all traveled to Haiti and worked with Partners in Health,
the international medical relief agency providing treatment
in the impoverished nation’s hard-hit hospitals.
“The earthquake caused an orthopedic emergency,” says
Dr. Donovan. “Faced with such devastation, there was
great need for the skill sets of surgical teams. But for
good will to do good, it has to be organized. Sutter Health
and Alta Bates Summit really stepped up.”
Alta Bates Summit’s contingent to Haiti
included Dr. Donovan; orthopedic surgeons David Chang, M.D.,
and Scott Taylor, M.D.; and OR nurse Joan Chamberlain, R.N.
Taking equipment, anesthesia, medication and other supplies
(much of it donated by Sutter), the team left January 21
and spent seven days providing much-needed critical care
at St. Nicholas Hospital, located about 60 miles from Port-au-Prince.
Joined by a Harvard medical crew who’d arrived there
earlier, the Sutter Health team treated more than 20 cases
a day, often working into the night when, due to power outages,
operations were illuminated by headlights worn by staff.
The newly donated equipment and anesthesia allowed the volunteers
to perform surgeries equivalent to modern standards, including
saving limbs. Back home, Alta Bates Summit colleagues and
loved ones followed the team’s progress, viewing Dr.
Donovan’s online photos and blog, dispatched from his
cell phone.
In all, Sutter contributed $1.25 million — its largest
disaster relief donation — to aid Haitian earthquake
victims. For his part, Dr. Donovan says the mission was “a
life-changing event. The ability to do work where there is
such overwhelming need helped me reconnect with the fundamental
reasons I went into medicine.”
Dr. Donovan and some of
his Alta Bates Summit colleagues plan to return to St. Nicholas
Hospital. To view more pictures and blogs about the two Haiti
sojourns, visit here. To donate
to Partners in Health on behalf of Sutter Health volunteers,
visit here.
Presents for the Littlest Patients
 |
| Loki
celebrates the holidays with (left to right) one
of his family friends; NICU social worker, Misty
Shultz; mom Kat Sprenger and dad Jesse Reynolds. |
|
After months of planning, Kathalijn “Kat” Sprenger
arrived at Alta Bates Summit’s Newborn Intensive Care
Unit (NICU) this past Christmas Eve with cartloads of carefully
wrapped gift bags — blankets, toys and outfits, all sorted
by gender and baby’s gestational age — plus gift
cards totaling $1,500. For the next three hours, she gave
out the donated gifts (solicited from her online blog) to
families who had to spend the holidays with their hospitalized
newborn.
“Most families don’t anticipate being here, especially
over the holidays,” says Nicole Keen, R.N., assistant
nurse manager of the NICU. “Kat’s generosity
made them feel so special.”
As fate would have it, Kat knew all too well what it’s
like to spend Christmas in the hospital, worried about her
baby’s health. Her son, Loki Sky, was born in October
2008 at 24 weeks, a micro-preemie who weighed just
1 pound, 6 ounces. Loki spent three of his first four months
in Alta Bates Summit’s NICU, where, says Kat, there
was “amazing care. Everyone was so supportive and compassionate.
The staff made us feel hopeful and happy, even though the
situation was so challenging. They understand what these
tiny babies and their families need.”
Since leaving the hospital, Loki has required ongoing care
and still uses a feeding tube but is doing “generally
well,” says Kat, who lives in Oakland with her husband,
Jesse Reynolds, and previously worked as an infant development
specialist with premature babies. “Sometimes,” she
says, “I think I was meant to have that specialty so
I’d know how to care for a baby like Loki.”
Inspired by her family’s experiences and the success
of last year’s gift drive, Kat says she plans to repeat
the gift giveaway this year. “It is hard to find the
right words to express my gratitude,” she says, “so
this is my way of saying thanks.”
To read Kat and Loki’s family
chronicles and learn how to participate in the gift drive,
visit here.
