Split seconds can save lives when it comes to medical emergencies, and the more an ambulance crew knows about a patient’s needs before they even arrive at the patient’s house, the better use they can make of those precious moments.
Casey and John Wheeler invited members of the Dallas County EMS ambulance teams into their home this week to meet their 7-month-old daughter, Everleigh Wheeler, and to learn in advance about her special needs should the call ever come.
Everleigh’s medical condition is very delicate. She was born with extreme scoliosis or curvature of the spine, which makes her look like she is leaning far to one side when she should be upright.
The condition has effected the development of her right lung and compromised her breathing. She has a tracheotomy and receives regular breathing treatments and a battery of medications.
Life with Everleigh has given the Wheelers something like a short course in medical school, and Casey Wheeler can rattle off the list of drugs and treatments and symptoms that form Everleigh’s routine with a practiced skill.
Everleigh has a twin brother, 7-month-old Emerson, and an older brother, Jensen, 2. The boys face the usual tasks of growing and do not share their sister’s bigger challenges.
“She’s really a happy baby,” said Casey Wheeler, as half a dozen paramedics and EMTs filled her and John’s living room Friday morning, led by Dallas County EMS Director Mike Thomason. “She puts up with everything pretty calmly.”
She put up with the gentle probings of a few of the ambulance crew as they listened to her heart and lungs and discussed her condition with the Wheelers. Charoltte Van Lengen, a Unity Point home health nurse, was also present to talk medically with the paramedics.
Everleigh’s condition has already brought some scary times, including 20 minutes of CPR during one of her trips to the pediatric intensive care unit. Congestion is always at risk of clogging her tubes, so close and constant monitoring of her condition is needed.
The baby will have surgery at 12 to 18 months, Wheeler said, or rather she will have the first in a series of surgeries. Doctors will insert a metal rod in or along her spine in order to train the spine to straightness. The rod will be surgically extended as Everleigh grows.
Perhaps nothing challenges our received wisdom about a just and loving God as much as the unearned and undeserved suffering of a child. But puzzles about divine justice seemed far from the immediate and practical concerns of the Wheelers and the paramedics as they checked little Everleigh’s pulse oxygen and intubation.
Thomason said he likes to have his ambulance crews get to know the people in their service area who have special medical needs.
“We love to learn about people in the community,” he said, “but we are dependent on their coming to us.”
If you or a loved one have special medical needs that you would like to make know to the Dallas County EMS Department, call Thomason at 515-465-3596.
