Patient families return for Critical Care Reunion

For the first 14 months of his life, Benjamin Adkins lived in the Critical Care Unit at Children's. Born with multiple birth defects, including tetralogy of fallot, a congenital heart defect, Benjamin required numerous specialists — physicians, nurses, social workers and other caregivers — to care for him around the clock.

That was 17 years ago. Today, Benjamin is a junior in high school in Louisville, Ky., where his family moved when he was 4 years old. Benjamin and his mother, Margaret, drove nearly 850 miles back to Dallas for the inaugural Critical Care Reunion this past month.

Benjamin Adkins, center, stands with his mother, Margaret, left, and Lori Allen, RN. Benjamin lived in the Critical Care unit at Children's for the first 14 months of his life.

Held in the Dallas Ambulatory Care Pavilion, the reunion brought together nearly 90 patient families like the Adkins, and physicians, nurses and other health professionals who treated these children.

"The reunion provided families who had gone through the emotional trauma of having a child in the ICU an opportunity to come back and say thank you to care givers who had supported them through the most difficult time of their life," said Maggie Huey, BSN, MHA, director of Critical Care Services. "These families didn't have the emotional capacity while in the ICU to express their thanks."

"It also allowed the ICU staff to see the outcome of their hard work," Huey said. "These were children whose outcome was uncertain while they were in the ICU. To see them dancing and having fun was extremely meaningful."

The carnival-style reunion featured several activities for the former patients and their families, including train rides, visits from Sponge Bob Square Pants and The Incredibles, T-shirt decorating, a bubble machine, music, games, refreshments and more.

One-year-old Jatonio Mathis plays Nurse Ring Toss during the reunion. Mathis was in the Critical Care unit as an infant after undergoing surgery to remove a thymic cyst.

Seeing former critically ill or injured patients playing and having fun brought tears to the eyes of several Children's employees.

One young former patient, a 20-month old little boy who had been on ECMO in the PICU, was dancing with his father and popping bubbles. "One of the staff members saw this and had tears in her eyes," Huey said. "She had a big smile on her face, and there was a big smile on the father's face as well. This is what it's all about."

Staff who work in Critical Care plan to make the reunion an annual event, to be held each year around the time of the Texas State Fair. "Some of these kids have physical reasons that make going to the state fair difficult for them," Huey said. "If the reunion coincides with the fair, this could be their version of Big Tex and the midway."

Tags: critical care, reunion, patient story, icu