Patient Experience Week: Alice’s Story

Just over two years ago, Aman­da and Che’ Humphrey wel­comed their first child, Alice. She is a hap­py, active tod­dler today. You wouldn’t know that she had a scary start to life, but her par­ents won’t soon for­get that day and the per­son who saved her life.

Aman­da was admit­ted to the hos­pi­tal for preeclamp­sia, a preg­nan­cy com­pli­ca­tion char­ac­ter­ized by high blood pres­sure. Baby Alice was deliv­ered and the Humphreys were thrilled to wel­come their new addi­tion. Aman­da held Alice to try breast­feed­ing her for the first time.

“I was hold­ing her and was try­ing to nurse her when the nurse noticed some­thing was wrong. She asked if she could look at her. After she did, she said she was going to take her and put her on oxy­gen. She didn’t seem con­cerned at all, so we weren’t con­cerned,” Aman­da shared.

Some time had passed, and baby Alice still hadn’t come back. The pedi­a­tri­cian on call that night was Dr. Samuel Healy with Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG).

“Dr. Healy came in and we had already cho­sen him as her pedi­a­tri­cian and it just so hap­pened that he was the pedi­a­tri­cian on call that night. And he said, you know, we’re still watch­ing her and she’s still on oxy­gen,” Aman­da recalled. ​“He said she is pret­ty grumpy when I’ve tried to do any­thing with her and that’s a lit­tle alarming.”

Due to her preeclamp­sia, Aman­da need­ed to receive treat­ment with mag­ne­sium after deliv­ery. Once she had fin­ished her treat­ment, she was tak­en back to a recov­ery room when things quick­ly changed.

“We had just got­ten in there and got­ten com­fort­able when Dr. Healy came fly­ing in the room and said, ​‘Your baby’s not doing well. I have to act right now. Do I have your con­sent?’ I said, ​‘What­ev­er you need to do.’ And then he flew out the door,” she said.

Alice had bilat­er­al pneu­moth­o­rax. A pneu­moth­o­rax is a col­lapsed lung that occurs when air leaks into the space between your lung and chest wall. Dr. Healy put ports in each of her lungs, but that wasn’t enough, so she was intu­bat­ed. Due to that, Alice need­ed to be trans­ferred to Spring­field to a hos­pi­tal with a neona­tal inten­sive care unit.

“Dr. Healy came in and apol­o­gized to us because he had said, ​‘I prob­a­bly should have done it this way rather than that way. It wouldn’t have changed the out­come, but he still felt the need to tell us about it. And I just thought, ​‘Wow, what a big per­son to do that,’” Aman­da shared.

Alice was in the NICU at St. John’s Hos­pi­tal for about a week, where she got a chest tube. She con­tin­ued to get bet­ter and bet­ter with each day.

“We were only there for a week and then went home with a per­fect­ly healthy baby because Dr. Healy saved her life. We think the world of him,” said Amanda.

Over two years lat­er, Alice would go in for anoth­er pro­ce­dure. After expe­ri­enc­ing chron­ic ear infec­tions, Dr. Healy referred her to an ENT physi­cian. Dr. Paul Con­rad, ENT physi­cian at QMG, saw Alice and Aman­da said they felt at ease with him.

“Dr. Con­rad is just so laid back and he imme­di­ate­ly makes you feel com­fort­able,” she said. ​“We were con­fi­dent in him and his abilities.”

Dr. Con­rad deter­mined Alice need­ed tubes. She was sched­uled for the pro­ce­dure at the new QMG Surgery Cen­ter. The Humphreys were admit­ted­ly ner­vous for their daugh­ter. As a nurse her­self, Aman­da said she was more ner­vous about how Alice would respond to the anes­the­sia than the pro­ce­dure itself.

“I def­i­nite­ly trust­ed Dr. Con­rad, but you just nev­er know how peo­ple are going to react under anes­the­sia or how they’re going to wake up from that. So I think that was what was caus­ing my nerves.”

The fam­i­ly was tak­en back to the pre-op room with Alice. As Aman­da held her lit­tle girl, the QMG Surgery Cen­ter team help calm her worries.

“We kept hear­ing how much we would love the nurse anes­thetist. They said, ​‘She’s going to come in here and hold Alice while she’s going to sleep and it will be like she’s falling asleep in her arms.’ And, I thought, ​‘You know my daugh­ter doesn’t real­ly warm up to peo­ple that well,’” Aman­da said.

In came Beth Coop­er, cer­ti­fied reg­is­tered nurse anes­thetist, with the QMG Surgery Cen­ter, who Aman­da calls ​“the baby whisperer.”

“She came in and my daugh­ter looked at her and raised her arms up like she want­ed her to pick her up. It was amaz­ing,” Aman­da said with a laugh. ​“And then she said, ​‘Okay, we’re going to go ahead and take her back there and she’s going to do great.’”

Through­out the pro­ce­dure, Aman­da said the team kept ongo­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion with them. Once she was fin­ished, Aman­da and Che’ were brought back to the recov­ery where they heard the words they prayed for: ​“Every­thing went well.”

Alice is doing great and the Humphrey fam­i­ly said they know their lit­tle girl is always in the best of hands with Dr. Healy and the team at QMG.