UnityPoint staff recognized for driving sick girl from Des Moines to Omaha in a blizzard

On Jan. 14, a small team from UnityPoint worked nonstop for almost 10 hours to transport a critically sick child with only half a heart from Des Moines to Omaha during a blizzard.

On Wednesday afternoon, UnityPoint medical center presented the team with a FOCUS Spotlight award for their outstanding work in helping to save 4-year-old Charlotte Lenhart's life.

The award is given out quarterly to employees who exhibit UnityPoint's highest values through their daily work and action, Senior Marketing Specialist Mark Tauscheck said.

They along with Kelsey Clendenen, a perfusionist with MercyOne, were nominated for the 2024 Hospital Heroes award by Wendy Woods-Swafford, the vice president of Blank Children's hospital.

"A group of medical professionals from two Des Moines hospitals collaborated to do the unthinkable so that as soon as the weather improved even just the slightest they would head to Omaha," her nomination letter said.

The team included Nick Langel, an EMT who drove the ambulance across the state; Nate Lyman, a paramedic who ensured all the equipment fit in the ambulance; Ge Yang, a respiratory therapist who made sure Charlotte's blood had oxygen; Michael Zweigart, the program manager who coordinated with teams from Mercy, Blank and Omaha; Kally Wadding-Frisch, a transport nurse at UnityPoint Health who ensured the operation was running smoothly; and Amy Leto, a pediatric transport nurse who put together the whole team.

Zweigart was not nominated for the Hospital Heroes award and was ineligible for the FOCUS Spotlight award, but was present because of his contributions to the operation.

Charlotte's mother, Katie, was there to thank the team, as was her daughter who was very active and vocal during the small event. Katie expressed her tremendous gratitude not just to the UnityPoint transport staff, but every person who'd helped along the journey.

"None of this outcome would have happened if everyone from Bondurant to Omaha hadn't done their part," she said. "No one person could save Charlotte. It took everyone working together."

Katie also thanked the pediatric ICU at MercyOne for caring for Charlotte.

"Our team is trained to do this," Yang said. "but you don't expect a thank you, usually you never see patients again."

Leto agreed, adding that seeing Charlotte's freckles was one of the best sights of her career.

"That's how we knew she was getting better," she said. "When her profusions went up, we saw that she had the cutest freckles."

The events that earned them the award

Charlotte was born with a chromosomal abnormality that meant she only developed two of the usual four chambers of her heart, her mother said. A series of surgeries can give patients a chance to reach adulthood and beyond.

But Des Moines no longer has a pediatric heart surgeon. So Charlotte had received the surgery at Nebraska's Children in Omaha and was recovering in Bondurant when her condition began to deteriorate. She was transported to MercyOne in Des Moines where she went into cardiac arrest on Jan. 13.

That weekend, according to the National Weather Service , wind chills drove temperatures into the negative 30s and 40s, and over a foot of snow fell in some places.

Staff were able to resuscitate Charlotte, but they determined that she needed another surgery fast. But Charlotte had been put on an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine that was functioning as her heart and lungs. It was connected to her by plastic tubes that could freeze and crack in the extreme cold.

According to Zweigart, even the time from an airport terminal to the plane could have been enough to freeze the equipment, and according to Yang, if that happened, Charlotte would die in minutes.

All of this meant Charlotte needed to be transported on the ground, but with many roads still closed, every transport team that MercyOne medical contacted was unable to take the job.

Eventually, a dispatcher at Mercy called Leto who said she was already working on putting together a team.

UnityPoint transport team gets to work

Leto had been aware of Charlotte and started putting together a team when a cardiologist with MercyOne asked if she would be able to make the transport happen. At around 8 a.m. Sunday, she made a list of all the equipment and personnel she'd need.

By 10 a.m., Leto and the people she'd gathered were at Mercy preparing to move Charlotte. Even with the entire team from UnityPoint and Mercy, it took a long time to get all the machinery necessary to keep Charlotte alive for the long journey to Omaha.

"It took two hours just to get her from the bed to the gurney," Leto said. "And 10-15 minutes to get her into the ambulance."

Once they were on the road, Langel drove as safe as he possibly could across the state. According to Leto, one of the most tense parts was the three stop signs they hit in Omaha.

"She's so small that every stop the momentum pulled her blood up and every acceleration pulled it down," she said. "I was so worried she wouldn't make it."

When they finally arrived in Omaha around 10 p.m. Sunday, they were greeted by a massive team that took Charlotte to the operating table to treat a ruptured conduit in her heart and blood clot.

Charlotte survived with a brain injury that Katie says hasn't affected her much so far. When they reached Omaha, the team from UnityPoint was given a well deserved cart of coffee and snacks.

Katie hopes the event will inspire larger changes in the healthcare system, including more collaboration between different medical centers and a pediatric heart surgeon coming to Des Moines so situations like her daughter's aren't so dangerous.

Ryan Magalhã es is a reporter for the Register. Reach them at rmagalhaes@dmreg.com .

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: UnityPoint staff recognized for driving sick girl from Des Moines to Omaha in a blizzard