[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 194 (Thursday, November 4, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H6182-H6183]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            RECOGNIZING STAFF OF LEVINE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
South Carolina (Mr. Norman) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NORMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to enter into the 117th 
Congressional Record an example of service beyond the call of duty of 
two surgeons and an amazing team of nurses and staff working at the 
Levine Children's Hospital located in Charlotte, North Carolina.
  On Sunday, August 22, 2021, while enjoying a relaxing day at our 
family farm, our 5-year-old grandson, Blair Beckham, got his hand 
entangled in the steel winch located at the front of a four-wheeler 
while attempting to pull a canoe out of a pond.
  I was able to pull his hand out of the winch just before his entire 
arm would have been severed by the steel pulley, but not before his 
index finger was severed and attached only by a single artery and his 
middle finger remained attached, but all veins, bones, and joints were 
totally shattered.
  I immediately wrapped his hand in a towel and drove to the emergency 
room at our local hospital, where he spent 3 hours before the ambulance 
transported him to Levine Children's Hospital located in Charlotte, 
North Carolina.
  The ambulance arrived at the Levine Children's Hospital at 9 p.m., 
and it was there that Dr. Dan Lewis, a faculty member of OrthoCarolina 
and a member of the American Association of Hand Surgeons, and Dr. 
Keith Nord, who had instructed the staff at the emergency room at 
Piedmont Medical Center on the medical procedures to take while Blair 
was being transported to the Levine Children's Hospital and who was a 
specialist in hand surgery and serving a fellowship at the hospital, 
examined Blair and scheduled him immediately for emergency surgery that 
night.
  The expedient and easy determination for these doctors to make would 
have been to amputate both fingers, as the loss of two fingers was not 
life-threatening and the surgery involved attaching the index finger, 
which was dangling by a lone vein, which was the size of one-fourth of 
the width of a human hair, and totally reconstructing the middle 
finger, which was completely shattered. The decision, however, was made 
to attempt to save the two fingers and to perform a surgery that lasted 
over 5 hours, beginning on a Sunday night at 11:30 p.m. and ending at 
4:30 a.m.
  Blair stayed in Levine Children's Hospital for 8 days, August 22 
through August 29, where he had medical leech

[[Page H6183]]

therapy, which is a rarely used treatment prescribed by Dr. Lewis that 
provided the necessary suction for obtaining adequate blood flow for 
the severed finger.
  Dr. Lewis and Dr. Nord, along with the entire nursing staff, went 
above the call of duty to take part in a successful surgery lasting 
over 5 hours, until the middle of the night, in order that a 5-year-old 
boy could have a normal hand with all five fingers.
  The 2 weeks of post-op care by Dr. Lewis and Dr. Nord was 
exceptional, and Blair now has the full use of the two once-damaged 
fingers on a fully functional hand.
  The dedication and passion that Dr. Lewis and Dr. Nord demonstrated, 
along with the nurses and staff, where they were willing to sacrifice 
their time and use their medical talent to perform a surgery that had a 
minimal chance of success was a testament to the age-old statement 
``service above self.''
  Dr. Dan Lewis and Dr. Keith Nord are a living testimony of the 
Hippocratic oath, which they swore to uphold as medical professionals. 
As the ending statement reads, ``May I always act so as to preserve the 
finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of 
healing those who seek my help.''
  May God bless those two doctors and nurses and staff that made this 
surgery a total success.

                          ____________________