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Modern Day Sleeping Beauty Kelly Shorr sits across the patio table from her mom, dad and two sisters. She looks like any other seventh-grader. She wears jean shorts, a T-shirt and tennis shoes. Her long, dark, wavy hair is pulled back in a ponytail, and when she smiles, a twinkle gleams in her bright blue eyes. To watch Kelly tuck her long legs under her chair, it is hard to believe that just four short months ago she was fighting for her life. In early January, Kelly came home from school complaining of a headache. Assuming she simply had the flu, her parents, David and Peggy Shorr of Columbia kept her home from school and encouraged her to rest. Two days later, Kelly seemed to be getting better. "She even ate some toast and juice," Peggy Shorr said. Later that evening, Kelly said she was having pain when she took a deep breath. By morning, Kelly was having difficulty breathing. At this point, the Shorrs knew Kelly was suffering from something more serious than the flu, but they had no idea of the battle that lay ahead of them. "We decided to take Kelly to the emergency room at Columbia Regional Hospital," Peggy said. "It was a Sunday morning and I had been a nurse manager at Columbia Regional for many years, so we felt most comfortable going somewhere we knew. We still did not realize how sick Kelly was at this point." By the time the Shorrs arrived at the hospital, just a 15-minute drive from their home, Kelly could barely walk. Her breathing was extremely labored. The emergency room doctors recommended that Kelly be immediately transferred to the care of specialists at Children's Hospital. In a whirlwind of activity, the Children's Hospital pediatric ambulance arrived. "The ambulance was wonderful," Peggy said, "because it is made especially for children. There was room for me to ride with Kelly. The staff encouraged a parent to ride with her to keep her as calm as possible. At that moment, I didn't know if Kelly was going to live. She was deteriorating so quickly and was so scared. As a mother, I'm not sure if I could have sent Kelly away without me. The ambulance ride is one of the only things Kelly remembers, and I am grateful I could be with her to assure her and keep her calm."
Berkenbosch met Kelly and the ambulance team at the Children's Hospital pediatric intensive care unit. Within minutes, Kelly was diagnosed with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). "When I heard those words, ARDS, I was in shock," Peggy recalled. "I was an intensive care nurse many years ago when people didn't survive ARDS." "In recent years, we have certainly made strides in the treatment of ARDS," Berkenbosch said. "But it is still a life-threatening illness with a multitude of causes and no specific cure. Our treatment strategies remain supportive, but survival depends on rapid implementation of these strategies. In Kelly's case, the onset of her symptoms was very rapid. The quick reaction of her parents and the Columbia Regional ER team gave her a fighting chance." After diagnosis, Berkenbosch and the pediatric ICU team worked quickly. Within 10 minutes of her arrival at the pediatric ICU, a tube was inserted into Kelly's throat to help her breathe, and she was placed on a ventilator. Intravenous lines were placed in her radial artery and large veins. To facilitate the function of the ventilator, Kelly was medicated to a state of pharmaceutical coma. "I remember watching the medical team and thinking this couldn't be happening to my daughter. Kelly is a healthy and active 13-year-old. She plays soccer, for goodness sakes. But it was happening. The entire horrific scene was happening to my daughter, and there was not a thing I could do to change it," David said. The doctors told the Shorrs that the next few hours would be crucial. In the next 48 hours, the Shorrs learned all they could about their daughter's illness. "Once Kelly was stabilized and I could think straight, I asked the nurse for a book about ARDS. I needed to know everything there was to know about the disease," David said. "She handed me a book, and I noticed it was written by Dr. Tobias, one of the doctors treating Kelly." Further conversations and exploration confirmed that Dr. Joseph Tobias was an expert in the field of pediatric critical care. "It is hard to explain the comfort that knowledge brought me," shares David, "When it is your daughter, you want to make sure the very best doctor is taking care of her and we had the very best right here in Columbia, Missouri." "Kelly was a very sick young girl," said Tobias, director of the pediatric intensive care unit. "Quite honestly, we didn't know if she would make it, and at times it seemed the odds were against her. We did everything we could to medically treat her, but the true fight was up to Kelly herself." For 20 long days, the Shorrs shared 12-hour shifts so one of them would always be at their daughter's side. "The worst part was the first two days," Peggy said. "The waiting was unbearable, and Kelly wasn't responding to her treatments." In addition, she was paralyzed in a bed with monitors and IV poles all around her. More than 15 medications coursed through her body. Kelly retained over 25 pounds of fluid. Her appearance changed drastically. On the second day, the girl's lungs remained impaired, so the doctors put her on a special ventilator. The ventilator breathed for Kelly at a rate of 300-plus breaths per minute. "On television you see people on ventilators and their chests go up and down in a rhythmic pattern," says David, "but this ventilator went thump, thump, thump, thump. Her chest was moving up and down at such a fast rate, it was difficult to watch. I will never forget the sound of that machine moving air in and out of Kelly's lungs." Kelly responded to the ventilator, but the doctors would only say they were cautiously optimistic that Kelly would pull through. "We didn't want to get the family's hopes up until we knew for sure," Berkenbosch said. Kelly improved with each day. Eventually, the doctors started decreasing her medications, and Kelly began waking up. Finally, on the 20th day of Kelly's hospital stay, the doctors said she could go home. "This was the day I finally allowed myself to believe that Kelly would be okay. ... As we got ready to leave and they took the last IV out of my baby, I knew she was going to be all right," Peggy said. To Kelly, the situation seemed overblown. "As we were driving home from the hospital, Kelly asked me why we were making such a fuss out of her coming home," Peggy said. "You see," David added, "in Kelly's eyes, she just fell asleep and then woke up. She doesn't realize that she was asleep for 14 days and knocking on death's door." Fortunately, Kelly does not remember much of her hospital stay. She does remember the day a nurse told her about a computer in the adolescent activity room where Kelly could get on the Internet and e-mail her friends. "You know, when you are in seventh grade, a lot can happen at school in 20 days," she said. Today, Kelly is back in school, thrilled to be once again hanging out with friends and playing soccer. In fact, only three and a half months after her life-threatening experience, Kelly played in a soccer double-header. Her team lost, but in eyes of Kelly's family and friends it was a huge win. Kelly's family credits her speedy recovery to her determination and the loving support of family and friends. They also credit Children's Hospital with saving Kelly's life. "We can't say enough good things about Children's Hospital. If it hadn't been for them, Kelly would not be with us today," Peggy said. "They did everything right. They cared for our daughter and encouraged us to be part of the process." |
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The ambulance team's respiratory therapist and nurse, both trained in pediatric and adolescent medicine, immediately took over Kelly's care. In route to Children's Hospital, they talked with pediatric intensivist Dr. John Berkenbosch. Berkenbosch is specially trained in pediatric medicine to care for the most critically ill children. 
