04/26/2012
Kandzari lectureship highlight of annual School of Nursing night of recognition
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University School of Nursing honored the service, leadership and academic achievements of students and faculty Friday, April 20 at the Health Sciences Center’s Okey Patteson Auditorium.
As this year’s Judy C. Kandzari Memorial Lectureship speaker, rural health champion Pamela S. Fahs, D.S.N., delivered “Rural Health Nursing: Honoring People and Place.” Dr. Fahs is the Decker Endowed Chair of Rural Nursing at Binghamton University, where she has taught nursing students for 26 years.
“Nurses practicing in rural settings often have a sense of connectedness,” said Dr. Fahs. “Their abilities to problem solve in a variety of situations are tried and tested.”
“Those who chose to practice in rural settings should be honored, and often go beyond being a professional nurse in a rural community to being a community leader,” she continued. “I think of rural nurses as the consummate generalists.”
A native of rural Kentucky, Fahs also serves as editor-in-chief of The Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, the journal of the Rural Nurse Organization.
Every other year, the Kandzari lecture series welcomes a national leader in rural health issues, and is named in honor of the late Judy C. Kandzari, a School of Nursing faculty member whose dedication to nursing education in rural areas was well-known throughout the state. Kandzari, a community health nurse, was also the School of Nursing’s first director of distance education.
“This lecture is a living tribute to Judy Kandzari that keeps her memory alive,” said Mary Jane Smith, Ph.D., R.N., associate dean of graduate academic affairs and chair of the night’s planning committee. Kandzari’s husband, mother, daughter and grandson joined School of Nursing faculty and staff in celebrating her contributions and the accomplishments of outstanding students.
In addition to Dr. Fahs’ address, 102 students and faculty members were recognized with scholarships and awards, and 58 individuals stood to take the oath for their inductions into the Alpha Rho chapter of Sigma Theta Tau, the nursing honor society.
--WVU--
12-073
For more information:
Leigh Limerick, Communications Specialist, 304-293-7087
limerickl@wvuhealthcare.com
lal: 04-12-12
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04/27/2012
WVU Healthcare surgeon implants diaphragm pacemaker in quadriplegic pediatric patient
One of two centers in country to use device
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It all happened in a matter of seconds. In one second, Meg Throckmorton of Waynesburg, Pa., was a regular 16-year-old practicing for an upcoming dance competition. In the next second, she couldn’t feel her arms or legs and was struggling to breathe.
The trick – a standing back tuck – was one she had done a thousand times. Meg’s mom, Dolly, said it was her aerial trick of choice. To complete it, she was going to flip backwards from a standing position and use her hands to tuck her knees to her chest. But, somewhere between standing and landing the tuck, something went terribly wrong.
“There was one girl – who has done duets with Meg in the past – in the room with her at the time, and she said it was almost like Meg was suspended in the air and then she came down on her head,” Dolly said.
Meg was air lifted to WVU Healthcare’s Jon Michael Moore Trauma Center, where it was determined that she had suffered a high cervical spine injury. She was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at West Virginia University Children’s Hospital. The next morning, she underwent neck surgery, which was performed by orthopaedic surgeon John France, M.D.
In addition to being quadriplegic as a result of the injury, Meg was unable to breathe on her own, which means she needed a ventilator to breathe for her.
Jennifer Knight, M.D., was the trauma surgeon on call the evening of Friday, April 13, when Meg arrived at WVU Healthcare and was brought in to consult on her case. She also is the same surgeon who was first in the state to implant a diaphragmatic pacemaker in an adult patient.
The device, NeuRx DPS, is currently being used in less than 35 cities nationwide, according to its manufacturer, Synapse Biomedical. WVU is the only center using the device in West Virginia.
An upper spinal cord injury breaks the connection between the brain and the diaphragm – the brain can no longer tell the diaphragm to contract. But for some people who suffer this type of spinal cord injury, a pacemaker for the diaphragm can be put into place to help them breathe. Just as a pacemaker for the heart helps to control the heartbeat, a diaphragmatic pacemaker stimulates the diaphragm to contract, allowing the patient to breathe.
The pacemaker is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in patients 18 years old and older. Meg is 16. Dr. Knight and others on her care team knew that she would greatly benefit from the pacemaker. The procedure won swift approval after an emergency assessment by WVU’s Institutional Review Board and from WVU Healthcare’s chief of staff, Michael Hurst, M.D., D.D.S. They determined that the two-year age difference did not put Meg at any significant risk.
Following surgery to implant the pacemaker on Friday, April 20, Meg returned to the PICU. When the device was turned on, she was able to spend a full 12 hours off the ventilator. Since the surgery, she has been able to come off the ventilator for periods of time every day. Though she is not yet off the ventilator completely, Knight said Meg will eventually get to that point.
Meg’s surgery makes West Virginia University’s medical center only the second in the country to use the device on a young patient, after Case-Western Reserve University in Cleveland. It is also the earliest the device has ever been implanted after injury.
“There are two reasons for that,” Knight said. “The first is that Meg was taken to a trauma center that does the procedure, and the second is that we started planning for the surgery almost immediately after she arrived. Everyone involved in Meg’s care worked very hard to make this happen as quickly as possible. And, it worked perfectly. Everyone did exactly what they were supposed to do to get it done.”
“They say you’ll go to the ends of the earth for your child, and when something like this happens, you don’t really have a choice,” Dolly said. “We are very thankful for the care Meg received, for as horrible as the situation was.”
Now, Meg will spend the next several weeks in Atlanta, Ga., at the Shepherd Center, a private, not-for-profit hospital specializing in medical treatment, research and rehabilitation for people with spinal cord injury and brain injury. The Shepherd Center staff are trained to treat diaphragmatic pacemaker patients.
“She will live a pretty normal life with some limitations,” Knight said. “She’s a fighter, and her family is very strong.”
--WVU--
12-073
For more information:
Angela Jones, News Service Coordinator, 304-293-7087
jonesan@wvuhealthcare.com
asj: 04-24-12
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