Having your child in the hospital is one of the greatest fears for parents. Your child is a physical representation of a parent’s heart living outside of their body. So, when your child is sick and there is nothing that you can do but trust the medical professionals in a hospital to care for your child like one of their own, it can prove difficult. Parents, Jacob and Cassie Baker, have had this worry since the premature birth of their beautiful daughter, Parker Lynn. Luckily for them, they have a cardiovascular perfusionist, Dane Pratt, at her bedside giving her more than medical attention.
Parker Lynn was born at just 23 weeks old, weighing in at one pound and five and a half ounces, in 2019 as a micro-preemie. Parker spent more than 200 days in the NICU before growing strong enough to go home with her loving parents in July of 2019. Her parents hoped that would be their last long-term hospital stay for Parker, but that would prove not to be the case. They had to admit their daughter back into the hospital after contracting two viruses that affected her already weakened lungs.
“She did come home on oxygen, so she does have chronic lung disease. So, she’s got comprised lungs and thankfully due to ECMO it’s saving her life right now,” Cassie Baker explains about Parker’s condition.
Jacob and Cassie have to once again watch their daughter fight for her life from a hospital bed at the MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center in Iowa. Parker has been medically paralyzed during her stay and connected with ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) which is giving her lungs the break they need. Having Parker back in the hospital has been terrifying for Jacob and Cassie, but they have had a sense of relief this time. The extra love and care from Dane Pratt.
“He just one day scooted up to her bedside, opened a book, and read to her,” Cassie Baker explained.
Dane Pratt is a cardiovascular perfusionist at MercyOne that has been in charge of monitoring Parker Lynn. Pratt understands how terrifying it is for a family to have a child in the hospital and has gone the extra step to reassure the parents that their children are being cared for and are in loving hands. So, Pratt goes out of his way and reads to Parker Lynn.
Pratt had started a book drive for the pediatric department at MercyOne Des Moines, so that he can have variety in his readings, but also for the children could have books to read on their own as well. Pratt knows that no parent wants their child in the hospital and that even doctors do not want them to be there. If they are unfortunate enough to have to be there than Pratt wants the parents to “know we are here along this journey with them the whole way,” and they are all willing go the extra mile. “Going the extra mile doesn’t mean you actually have to walk a mile,” Pratt said. “Sometimes it’s as easy as reading a book.”
“It was just, as a parent, it just makes you feel so at home and at ease knowing that there are medical professionals that don’t just see this as a job and are still compassionate,” Cassie Baker said.
Pratt has been reading Parker to her “The Little Engine that Could,” because he believes it will resonate with her and her journey, not just for right now but throughout her entire life. Dane Pratt understands what Parker’s parents have known since her birth, that Parker is a fighter.
“She’s fighting — she’s gonna prove everybody wrong,” he said. “She has a mission in life and she’s gonna fulfill that. She’s gonna do big things,” Jacob Baker proudly states with fatherly pride.
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