Robbie and Morgan McFerson already see eye-to-eye and have a lot in common.
When Sarah McFerson heard her doctor explain that her newborn, who’d been born 10 weeks early, needed to travel from Utah Valley Hospital to Primary Children’s Hospital for a sleep test to determine if the baby was getting enough oxygen or would need corrective surgery, she was concerned.
Her older son Robbie, who had a visibly obstructed airway, had the same jaw surgery at Utah Valley Hospital after he was born. Because he had to wait until he was old enough to have the surgery and then had to recover from it, it was a process that took weeks. Now she worried that if her daughter Morgan didn’t pass the sleep test, she too would require surgery. Sarah knew insurance wouldn’t pay to transfer her daughter back to Utah Valley for the surgery, meaning Morgan would remain for several weeks in Salt Lake. This would complicate visits during Morgan’s hospitalization.
Morgan McFerson was born 10 weeks early.
Erick Gerday, MD, a neonatologist and the medical director of the newborn intensive care unit at Utah Valley Hospital, decided to do some investigating to see if there was a safe way to help Morgan and her parents. Dr. Gerday says sometimes if a child is born with an airway malformation, that needs to be eventually repaired by surgery, the child will need a sleep test. If the test shows the baby is getting enough oxygen, they can put off the delicate surgery to correct the problem for months or even years to a time when it’s safer for the infant.
Normally the sleep test is performed at Primary Children’s, but Dr. Gerday spoke with Khalid Safi, MD, a sleep lab physician, to see if they might be able to do the sleep test at Utah Valley. Dr. Safi suggested a ventilation examination—a test that monitors carbon dioxide levels in the bloodstream through the skin that could be done with equipment already in place at the hospital.
Erick Gerday, MD, worked with other Intermountain doctors and caregivers to find innovative solutions that benefited the McFersons.
“I was kind of exploring to see what other possibilities there were and Dr. Safi was kind enough to offer an alternative,” he says. “If he’d not offered a safe alternative, I’d have transported the patient.”
Dr. Gerday says Nicolette Lyhnakis, who was the Primary Children’s sleep lab acting manager at the time, helped make sure the test Dr. Gerday administered would get them the results they needed.
It took some research, training, and help from Primary Children’s, but they were able to do the limited test themselves at Utah Valley without transporting the baby, a decision that Dr. Gerday says may have kept the overall bill down by about $10,000.
Morgan’s mother, Sarah, a child life specialist who now works part-time at Utah Valley Hospital, trusted Morgan would receive good care at Primary Children’s, she just wanted her to be closer to home. She also knew the nurses at Utah Valley Hospital who would be caring for her daughter because they’d cared for her son too.
Sarah McFerson says she "adores" the nurses at Utah Valley Hospital who cared for her son and daughter. These three are, from left to right, Carolyn Maughan, Roxanne Jolley, and Anita Brandow.
“I’ve worked at Utah Valley and it feels like home to me.” Sarah says. “We just adore the nurses. When I came back the second time with my daughter after having my son cared for there, it was like a reunion seeing everyone.”
She says Dr. Gerday went the extra mile for Morgan and she appreciates that. Morgan passed the test. After 98 days in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit, she finally went home.
“It’s nice that Dr. Gerday was willing to look into all options to make it possible for us to keep our child at Utah Valley,” she says. “In our case, the CO2 test gave enough information to tell us surgery wasn’t imminent, and we could safely bring her home.”
Sarah and Larry McFerson hold their two children Robbie and Morgan.
Sarah and her husband, Larry, hope Utah Valley will soon be able to offer the full sleep study test for infants and young children so others who may need the complete study will be able to stay closer to home, even if immediate surgery is required.
“One of Intermountain’s missions is family-centered care,” she says. “Being able to support your child through challenges in a hospital that’s only minutes away can make a huge difference for a family, especially at a time when more complications are the last thing they need.”
Dr. Gerday says Primary Children’s kept the needs of the patient first.
“I think the people at Primary do an excellent job,” Dr. Gerday says. “They aren’t just after getting more business. They want to get every child what they need and if we can do a cheaper test that’s appropriate clinically, without transport, then I knew they’d be willing to do that. They have a high level of integrity.”
Nicolette, who’s also a registered polysomnographic technologist, says there are discussions underway with Utah Valley Hospital to see if they can continue to do this type of testing themselves when it’s appropriate. She says there have been discussions with other Intermountain sleep labs to see if Primary Children’s can help them expand so they could each do some limited pediatric studies, as they did this time, in their own labs when that would benefit the patients. In such cases, the Primary Children’s sleep lab would help the other labs analyze and process the data collected from those tests.
“The Primary Children’s model is to keep the child first and that really is what we want to do,” she says. “We want to do the best for these patients. And if it doesn’t make sense for a baby to get transferred here, then we’ll try and help them where they are.”