Shriners shuttle children in need of special surgical, medical care

MINNEAPOLIS - The hospital looks more like a kid's play room than a medical facility, but treating youth is the specialty of the Twin Cities Shriners Hospital for Children.

Six-year-old Paetyn entered the facility excited and unafraid and immediately darted toward the play area. Her mother, Sandra, said although this trip was a routine check-up, the first grader had acted no differently when she had faced surgery two months ago.

Born without a useable thumb, Paetyn has undergone multiple surgeries on her right hand at the Shriners hospital.

The first, at six months old, was a surgical creation of a thumb using her index finger. The latest, a hand tendon transfer to improve thumb opposition, was conducted last November.

This visit would determine the success of the most recent effort to improve strength in her hand.

The Columbus mother and daughter did not make the long trek to Minneapolis alone. They were accompanied by Shriner Roadrunners Allen Laird of Rising City and Don Schaufelberger of Columbus, both members of the Columbus chapter of the Sesostris Shriners in Lincoln. Schaufelberger said he has been a Shriner for 49 years and a Roadrunner for four years, while Laird said he has been a Shriner and a Roadrunner for seven years.

The local Roadrunners are a division currently consisting of 24 Shriners members who provide free transportation to Minneapolis for more than 35 patients from the area. They made 22 trips to Minneapolis in 2006.

The pair chauffeured Sandra and Paetyn in the handicapped-equipped, six-passenger van acquired last November by the Columbus chapter, frequently trading roles as driver and navigator during the 400-mile, more than seven-hour trip to Minneapolis.

Each driver said they had made the two-day trip around 10 times, and although it was a big time commitment, the effort was well worth it.

“There are a lot of worthwhile organizations I could volunteer for, but I enjoy this more,” Schaufelberger said. “Once I made the trip to the hospital

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and saw what good they do, it was one of the most satisfying duties I can do.”

Both Schaufelberger and Laird are retired, as are a majority of the Roadrunners, which allows more flexibility to make trips with short notice.

“I can only play so much golf,” said Schaufelberger, who said he preferred to use some of the excess time doing something good for someone else.

Paetyn was not distracted from erecting a Lego tower as Dr. Steven Moran entered the room.

Once she did notice, the hand and microvascular surgeon encouraged her to continue playing, observing how she used her hand, turning recreation into evaluation.

During his brief visit, Moran said the incisions from the surgery were healing nicely and answered the mother's questions and concerns, assuring her everything was progressing smoothly.

Following the doctor's visit, Paetyn was taken to a room that looked more like a play area than a place for occupational therapy.

Wendy Tomhave, an occupational therapist, conducted a series of tests disguised as games, and Paetyn happily participated.

The tests assessed the strength and feeling in her right hand, the amount of opposition in the thumb and how Paetyn used the hand in everyday tasks. One test result determined her left hand was 2.5 times stronger than her right.

Tomhave said that was to be expected and recommended the family work with Paetyn to continue making progress, but concurred with Moran that Paetyn's hand was healing nicely and developing at a good pace.

The mother said she would continue to encourage Paetyn to jump rope, play video games and do exercises to strengthen her hand.

After the tests were finished Paetyn didn't want to leave the hospital, the lone instance at the hospital when she objected to anything.

Paetyn is just one of the 4,500 active patients who receive care at the Twin Cities Shriners Hospital for Children, which serves seven states, including Nebraska, and two Canadian provinces.

The Twin Cities hospital specializes in orthopedics and treats many different conditions, such as limb deficiencies, foot and hand problems, neuromuscular disease, cerebral palsy, spina bifida and some burn patients. The hospital also includes an on-site lab that fabricates orthotics and prosthetics tailored to the individual needs and desires of children.

Services are provided free of charge to qualified applicants, and the only requirements are that the child is under the age of 18, and there is a reasonable possibility the child's condition can be helped by the specialized care provided by the Shriners Hospitals for Children.

The Shriners Hospitals for Children rely on philanthropy of the Shriners and the generosity of donors to help continue their mission of providing specialized pediatric care at no charge, conducting innovative research and providing world-class teaching programs for physicians and other health care professionals.

For more than 80 years, Shriners Hospitals for Children have provided some of the best medical care in the world, totally free of charge, to more than 800,000 children with orthopedic problems, severe burns and spinal cord injuries.

Initially, Paetyn's mother sought out an orthopedic specialist in Omaha to treat her daughter, but was not satisfied with the direction the doctor recommended, because he wanted to delay surgery until she was a few years old. By that time, she said, Paetyn would have had to relearn how to use her hand.

It was not until soon after that visit, the mother said, that her father put her in contact with the local Shriners, a move that would positively impact her daughter for the rest of her life.

Because the doctors at the Shriners hospital decided to conduct the surgery during Paetyn's infancy, Sandra said, “She hasn't known anything else.”

She said she was grateful for not only the efforts of the hospital, but of the local Roadrunners as well, especially since Paetyn has had five appointments within the past 10 months.

“I don't have to take the other two kids out of class,” and her husband doesn't have to take time off either, Paeytn's mother said. “It also doesn't cost as much,” because she doesn't have to pay for transportation or the cost of a hotel room or lunches.

She said she doesn't know what she would have done without the Shriners and appreciates everything they have done for her daughter to improve the quality of Paetyn's life.

“The Shriners are all about kids,” Paeytn's mother said. “She has got some of the best doctors around. I wouldn't go anywhere else.”