…And Then There’s the Joy

For those of you who watched Grey’s Anatomy last night, there were some sad moments and some gut-wrenching unbelievably awful ones…and then there was one unbelievably beautiful one…the joy of a child who was given another chance at life. One doctor gathered several of her colleagues to witness it. Together they stood outside her room, quietly smiling and taking in the moment. There wasn’t much more that needed to be said – the message was clear. Saving one childs life trumped everything.

Given the project I’ve been working on, it has meant that over the years most of the news stories I’ve captured have been the sad stories of the children involved in ambulance crashes. This blog gives me the opportunity to share all kinds of pediatric patient stories. Today, I am grateful to be able to share something incredibly uplifting…

(by Roni Caryn Rabin: NYT 5/13/09 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/health/14scorpion.html?_r=1&ref=us )

10 year-old Michael Moerdler-Green was stung by a scorpion during a recent family trip to Phoenix. At the emergency room, doctors offered his parents a choice of treatments: heavy sedation to help calm his symptoms or an experimental scorpion venom made in Mexico, but not yet approved for use in the US by the FDA. His father, Dr Moerdler-Green, chose the antivenom. His son was able to leave the hospital ONE HOUR AFTER RECEIVING THE MEDICATION.

No other antivenom specifically for scorpion stings is available in the US. A study published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine documents a small clinical trial of young children stung by bark scorpions – most given the drug recovered from most of their symptoms within 2 hours. Dr Leslie Boyer, director of a venom research institute at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson said wider use of the antivenom could make treatment much easier in rural areas and small towns in the state that do not have PICU’s and usually have to helicopter children to hospitals for care.

I would like to thank everyone for sharing this with me today. I am grateful to have your company when the news I have is sad or scary and my hope is to raise awareness about some child safety issue. I am thrilled that the only message I have to pass on today is one of hope…and life. Welcome to the joy.