[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
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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.
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