[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 11 (Tuesday, February 8, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 8, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       A COMMUNITY PULLS TOGETHER

                                 ______


                         HON. ROMANO L. MAZZOLI

                              of kentucky

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 8, 1994

  Mr. MAZZOLI. Mr. Speaker, today, I would like to call attention to a 
very special group of people who live and work in my hometown of 
Louisville and Jefferson County, KY.
  A couple of weeks ago the Louisville area, along with most of the 
eastern half of the Nation, fell under the grip of a furious winter 
storm. With 16 inches of snow on the ground in Louisville and with 
temperatures dipping to -22 degrees, venturing out into that nearly 
lethal weather was the last thing on most minds. Most, that is, except 
for Michelle Schmitt and her family.
  Michelle Schmitt is a bright and enthusiastic 3-year-old who is like 
almost any other toddler her age with one major exception: she has had 
liver problems since birth and has been on a waiting list for 2 years 
for a liver transplant. And, that long-awaited call that a liver was 
available came, not when the weather was benign but when it was 
brutish, and not from a transplant center near Louisville but from one 
hundreds and hundreds of miles distant in Omaha, NE.
  There appeared to be no way for Michelle and her family to make it 
out of their house much less to make the trek to Louisville's 
Standiford Field for the trip to Omaha. But, when the word of 
Michelle's plight went out on WHAS Radio 840, a concerned group of 
people got together with imagination, courage and selflessness and 
devised a plan to get Michelle to her plane and then to the hospital 
for the operation.
  The accompanying Courier-Journal articles describe the ordeal--and 
that's really what it was--surrounding Michelle's evacuation. I will 
not recount the details, as awe-inspiring as they are, but I need to 
cite some of the people whose heroic efforts helped Michelle.
  Joe and Teresa Amshoff came up with the idea of using a parking lot 
as a helipad and led a shovel brigade of 200 volunteers who cleared the 
parking lot of Southeast Christian Church. The church's pastor and 
associate pastor, Rev. Bob Russell and Rev. Dave Stone, and Southeast 
Christian's congregation also pitched in with the effort to clear the 
parking lot so the helicopter could land. Hank Wagner and David Fleming 
of Jewish Hospital made the medical helicopter service, Skycare, 
available. Skycare's communications director, Kimberly Phelps, worked 
to get flight nurse, Rick Nickoson and paramedic, Joe Vetter scheduled 
for the flight. Volunteer pilots Jason Smith and Jeff Bowlan of Pattco, 
Inc. flew the mercy mission to Omaha. Many others worked hard to clear 
the runway at Louisville's Standiford Field so Michelle and her family 
could leave Louisville for Omaha.
  I am immensely proud to represent such a dedicated and giving group 
of individuals. The work everyone put forth to give a little girl a 
chance for a full life was a labor of love and was evidence, once 
again, of the devotion and true charity of the people of Louisville and 
Jefferson County. The episode is a prime example of how noble and 
caring people are when called upon.
  One last note--Michelle is doing well and our thoughts and prayers 
are with her for a successful and speedy recovery.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask permission to include at this point the Courier 
Journal articles referred to in my statement:

               [From the Courier Journal, Jan. 18, 1994]

           Frozen City Warmed to a Sick Little Girl's Plight

              (By Beverly Bartlett and Laurel Shackelford)

       People from all over Kentucky came together yesterday in a 
     breathtaking battle against time and nature for a Louisville 
     girl, who just may win.
       Since 3-year-old Michelle Schmitt was a year old, she has 
     been on waiting list for a liver transplant. Yesterday, at 9 
     a.m., as a record snowfall paralyzed Louisville, her 
     grandmother got the call the whole family had been waiting 
     for. By sundown, a liver would be waiting for her.
       In Omaha, Neb.
       But there was no way for Michelle to get to the airport. No 
     way for pilots to get there. No way for planes to take off, 
     with the airport closed. No way for emergency medical workers 
     to get out of their driveways.
       Top have the best chance of success, hospital workers in 
     Nebraska wanted Michelle in Omaha by 6 p.m.--7 p.m. at the 
     latest. The race was on.
       Michelle is one of 251 children waiting for a liver 
     transplant. More than 100 U.S. hospitals do liver 
     transplants, but only about 50 perform them for children. Not 
     one is in Kentucky. Kosair Children's Hospital expects to 
     start performing such surgeries this summer.
       But that did Michelle no good yesterday. She was born with 
     biliary atresia, the same condition her older sister, Ashley, 
     had. Ashley received a liver transplant in 1991, at the age 
     of 3. She is now reportedly doing well.
       But Michelle was still in desperate need. She weighed just 
     22 pounds, an average weight for a 1-year-old.
       (Michelle and Ashley's mother. Theresa, died in August 
     1992, after overwhelming reumonia progressed to Adult 
     Respiratory Distress Syndrome. As a complication, doctors 
     also suspected an uncommon vascular disorder called Wegener's 
     granulomatosis.)
       Friends had come to the Schmitt's aid, raising money all 
     over the county--from donations, raffles and charity 
     auctions. But yesterday the community came to the child's aid 
     in other ways.
       Jewish's air ambulance service, SKYCARE, agreed to fly 
     Michelle to Standiford Field, after an employee heard the 
     family's plea for help on a radio station.
       She was supposed to be picked up there by a Lear jet, which 
     would take her to Omaha, where a liver was being flown in 
     from an undisclosed location.
       David Fleming, a Jewish Hospital vice president, said 
     SKYCARE's communications director, Kimberly Phelps, worked 
     frantically to put together a medical team for the trip. Rick 
     Nickoson, the flight nurse, drove a four-wheel-drive vehicle 
     to pick up paramedic Joe Vetter.
       Two volunteer pilots, Jason Smith and Jeff Bowman, of 
     Pattco Inc., waited at Standiford Field.
       But first Michelle had to get there--and for hour after 
     agonizing hour, that looked iffy.
       Members of Southeast Christian Church have been leading the 
     fight for money to pay for her transplants, and yesterday the 
     church came to the rescue again.
       The brilliant idea to transform a church parking lot into a 
     helicopter landing pad came from Teresa Amshoff who spent the 
     day ``stuck here in the house, listening to the story'' about 
     Michelle on WHAS.
       She heard about the plan to drive her from Hikes Point to 
     Clark County airport, ``and I knew it would take them two 
     hours to get to Clark County. As I was staring out the window 
     it came to me: Bring the helicopter to Southeast Christian 
     Church,'' right behind her house.
       Amshoff called the station, and after some huddling, 
     rescuers decided to go for it.
       ``They asked if I could get people to shovel. I said, `No 
     problem.' I ran door to door on Glen Meade Road screaming for 
     help. I told everyone we needed them with their shovels. 
     Everyone was tired from shoveling their driveways off, but no 
     one turned me down.''
       Soon a team of six snow shovelers turned into a crowd of 
     hundreds with a big will--and big shovels.
       Her husband, Joe, went ahead and walked off a 100-foot area 
     for a landing site, and everybody dug in.
       ``People just started pulling in,'' said Dave Stone, the 
     church's associate preaching minister. ``It looked like a 
     four-wheel-drive convention.''
       While some arrived in four-wheel-drives, people who lived 
     in the neighborhood flocked in on foot, carrying snow 
     shovels.
       The family pulled up in a four-wheel-drive vehicle. 
     Michelle was carried to the helicopter on a stretcher. Her 
     father, Ed, was shivering. Bob Russell, the church minister, 
     asked if he was cold.
       ``No,'' he said. ``I'm just really nervous.''
       Hospital officials in Nebraska weren't; they were confident 
     that Michelle would reach Omaha by nightfall, the optimum 
     time for her liver transplant.

               [From the Courier Journal, Jan. 19, 1994]

          Girl, 3, ``Doing Real Well'' After Liver Transplant

                         (By Patrick Howington)

       Hours after undergoing a liver transplant that was made 
     possible by snow-shoveling volunteers, a 3-year-old Jefferson 
     County girl was making an impressive recovery yesterday in an 
     Omaha hospital.
       Michelle Schmitt's condition was upgraded from critical to 
     serious-but-stable yesterday afternoon. Doctors at the 
     University of Nebraska Medical Center were ``really happy and 
     amazed at how she's bouncing back,'' said Edward Schmitt, 
     Michelle's father.
       '`She's doing real well right now. They've already pulled 
     the respirator from her and she's sitting up,'' Schmitt said. 
     ``She wants her bottle, she wants chocolate, she wants Coke * 
     * *. It's amazing.''
       Michelle had been waiting two years for a donor liver, but 
     when the call finally came Monday the timing couldn't have 
     been worse. Louisville roads and airports were virtually shut 
     down by record snow.
       The flight to Omaha wouldn't have been possible if 200 
     neighbors and volunteers hadn't shoveled a clearing at 
     Southeast Christian Church, where the Schmitts are members, 
     so a helicopter could land and take Michelle to a waiting 
     private jet. Without a quick departure, the donor liver in 
     Omaha would no longer have been useable.
       ``I want to thank everybody from the bottom of my heart,'' 
     Edward Schmitt said. ``I feel like they saved her life.''
       Michelle arrived at the Nebraska hospital about 6:45 p.m. 
     CST Monday, hospital spokeswoman Mary Zgoda aid. She was on 
     the operating table by 9 p.m. The surgery ended at 4 a.m. 
     yesterday.
       Michelle and her family flew to Omaha on a corporate jet 
     donated by Paco Aire of Jefferson County.
       The jet had been lined up months ago by Sharon Stevens, a 
     hairdresser who has been raising money for the Schmitts for 
     two years. Stevens said a non-profit group she set up for 
     that purpose, Hair Angels--its members initially were all 
     hair-dressers--has raised about $50,000 for the family.
       But Stevens said that is '`a drop in the bucket'' compared 
     with the family's medical bills. She said care just for 
     Michelle's older sister Ashley, who received a liver 
     transplant in 1991, has totaled $700,000. Insurance covers 80 
     percent of medical bills, she said.
       Money raised by Hair Angels has gone toward medication 
     (Michelle's costs up to $1,000 a month), insurance premiums 
     and flights to Omaha, where Ashley also received her 
     transplant and follow-up care.
       Now the group is trying to raise money to cover the 
     Schmitts' housing in Omaha, where Michelle may be for up to 
     three months.
       Donations for Michelle's medical expenses can be sent to 
     Hair Angels, 239 Chenoweth Lane, Louisville, KY 40207. 
     Contributions are tax-deductible.

                          ____________________