The Heart of the Matter
By Beth Goins
Her body was smaller than his forearm, her head about the size of his palm. Her tiny chest, covered in sterile gauze, rose and fell in a steady rhythm.
Dr. Mark Plunkett looked up at the monitors that tracked each heart beat, each breath. Her parents clung together in the pediatric intensive care unit at Kentucky Children’s Hospital.
"She looks really good. A little later today we'll close her chest. I think she's going to do very well," Plunkett said, reaching out to squeeze the mother's arm and shake the father's hand.
The parents' faces quickly relaxed into smiles. Happy tears soon followed. Their long struggle was almost over. Soon, they would be taking their two-week-old daughter home for the first time. A few days earlier, Plunkett had repaired her heart, which was malformed before birth. One side of her heart was too small, and the main blood vessel supplying oxygen-rich blood to the rest of her body was dangerously narrow. Shortly after her birth, Plunkett performed life-saving surgery. Because the newborn was so fragile, her chest incision remained open as doctors monitored her progress in case she needed further surgery. However, now the baby was well enough to have her incision closed and soon prepare for the two-hour journey home.
Later, in the corridor outside the unit, the usually sunny Plunkett blinked back a few of his own tears.
"The relationship that I have with the parents of these children is quite special in that they are entrusting the life of their child to me with great expectation that we are going to care for their child and do the best we can to take care of them and give them a good outcome, a good healthy life," Plunkett said. "The importance of that relationship cannot be overestimated. It's a very special interaction with these parents."
Their happy endings are his milestones.
There have been many.
A year ago, Plunkett came to the University of Kentucky from the University of California at Los Angeles to become the chief of cardiothoracic surgery at the Univerisity of Kentucky College of Medicine and direct the children's heart surgery program at Kentucky Children’s Hospital. In addition to providing high-quality heart surgery to complement the clinical and interventional cardiology services of the Linda and Jack Gill Heart Institute, Plunkett's goal was to offer care and hope for babies and adults with complex congenital heart defects.
The adult and children’s programs would only be as successful as the dedication of the teams operating them, Plunkett said then.
In the past year, Plunkett and his team have treated nearly 200 patients. In retrospect, "we have collectively exceeded my expectations to this point. The vast majority of patients have done very well," Plunkett said. "We have also seen quite a spectrum of congenital heart disease, from the straightforward to the most complex. The team here has done a remarkable job taking care of these babies to give us such good outcomes."
Plunkett's enthusiasm for the program was almost tangible. As he spoke of it, his eyes sparkled and his smile grew wider. He leaned forward into the conversation eagerly.
"The effort that has been put forth is outstanding," he said. "The time commitment, the dedication for taking care of those babies, from the very beginning, when the diagnosis is made, to the post-operative care, to getting them discharged and home safely has been outstanding, across the board at all levels."
That's the "how" of the success of the program thus far. When asked "why," Plunkett grew quiet, and his smile dipped as he considered the answer.
After a short pause, he answered thoughtfully, "I think it's of the utmost importance at this institution that we be able to offer the entire spectrum of care for congenital heart defects in children regardless of the severity of the defect," Plunkett said. "The whole goal was to establish a team that would be able to do that not only with the expertise but also the dedication to care for these children, and we’re well on our way to achieving that."
A few feet away, the grateful parents he had visited a few minutes earlier could be seen watching over their daughter. Asked if he felt gratified in any way knowing he had helped to restore their hope, Plunkett nodded slowly.
"It’s extremely gratifying to be able, maybe in the first time in the history of this program, to offer this level of care, this level of expertise and this level of confidence to the families of Kentucky to be able to bring their children here and give them care that equals or exceeds what they could receive anywhere else," he said. "That was the whole goal, to come here to make this kind of difference."
