Kosair Children’s Hospital

By Samantha Carver

Claudia and Riley

It was a beautiful July day in 2008 when cousins Riley Jane Lawrence, 4, and Claudia Faye Wadlington, 5, were crossing the street in Louisville to go to swimming lessons. In moments though, their young lives were cut horribly short when they were hit by a 27-year-old man who was running from Louisville police.

After the girl’s deaths, their families wanted to do something to honor their memories and help others. The Riley Jane Lawrence and Claudia Faye Wadlington Fund was created.

To honor Riley’s mother, Sarah Lawrence, who is an administrator for the Student Doctor Network Web site, SDN members raised money for the fund to help the families with expenses and other organizations in memory of the girls. The money raised was donated to several local groups and the rest is part of a permanent memorial fund at the Community Foundation of Louisville.

This three-part series of articles focuses on the work of each of those groups that has received donations thus far, and why they were chosen by the girls’ families.

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Choosing to donate money to the Kosair Children’s Hospital emergency department was the decision of the moderator staff of the Student Doctor Network. The donation just seemed right after the care that was given to Riley Jane Lawrence there before her death.

“Kosair is a large children’s hospital serving the Louisville Metro and wider Kentucky area,” said Sarah Lawrence, Riley’s mother and SDN moderator. “It’s the hospital where Riley was cared for after she was hit by the car, and it is where she passed away.”

The 24-hour emergency department includes Kid’s Express, Just for Kids Critical Care Center, Neonatal Intensive Care, Just for Kids Transport Team and Kentucky Regional Poison Center. The clinical care is provided by physicians and staff who have been trained to work with children.

“We serve all 120 counties in Kentucky,” said Lynnie Meyer, MSN, RN, executive director of the Children’s Hospital Foundation. “We serve 116,000 kids a year and have the second busiest emergency department in the state. We are the trauma center for children in Kentucky.”

Kid’s Express allows treatment of non-critical illnesses or injuries with less delay. It is open from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., Monday through Friday with extended hours on the weekends.

The Just for Kids Critical Care Center allows physicians to treat most seriously ill and injured children using the most sophisticated technologies and equipment.

“I only knew of Kosair because of the care that Riley received there,” Lawrence said.

The Neonatal Intensive Care unit is connected by pedway to the Nortons Hospital Women’s Pavilion to guarantee at-risk newborns can receive immediate treatment.

The Just For Kids Transport team is a fleet of vehicles and aircrafts used to transport children to Kosair Children’s Hospital for specialized care.

“We chose to donate $2,000 to the emergency department,” said Lawrence.

The emergency department at Kosair sees an average of 52,000 children each year, according to Meyer.

“It specializes in care and treatment of children,” Meyer said. “They receive care through physicians who are trained in pediatrics. It is a safe, child-friendlly environment.”

Meyer said a large amount of funding is placed in the emergency department each year for equipment such as X-ray machines with lower doses of radiation for children.

“We want to help provide much needed service to children and honor Riley’s memory,” Lawrence said. “As always, we’d like to inspire others to give as well.”

Meyer said the donation was one of several received by the emergency department, but the reason for the donation touched many.

“This gift was truly heartfelt,” she said. “We can’t provide the services and the care without the community and it just means so much for them to think of us.”

While emergency rooms can seem scary enough to parents and children, emergencies outside of the hospital can be even scarier. For parents who believe their children may have been accidentally poisoned, the Kentucky Regional Poison Center is available.

When a phone call is made in Kentucky to the Poison Control Center, the calls are routed through the Kentucky Regional call center.

“We have 77,000 calls a year to our poison control center,” Meyer said. “We answer calls from family members who have a child in the home or even calls about occupational emergencies like chemical spills.”

Registered nurses are on staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the staff is overseen by a qualified physician.

“Our nurses are connected in real-time to a national database that is monitored,” Meyer said. “If we were to input a sudden spike in Louisville of a disease outbreak, United States Homeland Security has access to that information and determine if there are underlying problems.”

The poison control center is one of 13 throughout the country that are monitored by USHS.

“We have a dedicated staff in that unit,” Meyer said. “They train and go to conferences to be the best at their jobs.”

Kosair Children’s Hospital is a division of Norton Healthcare which is a not-for-profit healthcare provider. The generosity of the community, through donations and volunteer efforts, allow the hospital to provide quality care to patients.

The Children’s Hospital Foundation helps to raise awareness and funds for the hospital. The donation from the Lawrence/Wadlington fund placed them in the Circle of Miracles.

By providing quality equipment to the hospital, the Children’s Hospital Foundation helps attract qualified specialists to the area. This allows families to receive excellent care without having to travel out of the area.

However, Meyer said the story of the hospital that sticks with her the most involved bringing the hospital to the ones who needed it most.

“The children’s hospital dates to 1892,” she said. “We have been doing transport for a long time, but there was a time about 25 years ago that we were going into a rural community where there was no airport. They told us to land at a farm, but they didn’t have any lighting for the plane to land. The entire community came out with lanterns and lined the sides of the field so that the plane could land. They were able to reach the baby and transport it to Louisville for heart surgery. That is what our hospital is all about. Helping people whenever and wherever they need it.”