10 Sunday, October 28, 2018 Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Transforming Hilo Medical Center from good to great!
“So many people
asked me if
I was going
to Oahu for my care,”
says Mary Espejo,
who had two surgeries
less than a month
apart. “Why would I
want to go to Oahu?
People at Hilo Medical
Center have been
working hard to make
this place so good.”
“There has been a
huge shift in attitude
at our hospital that has
made a whole lot of
difference,” she adds.
“I felt like everyone
who came into my
room was there to make
me feel comfortable.
I felt like they were
genuinely concerned
about me, and their
demeanor showed it.”
“We are experiencing
a culture change at Hilo
Medical Center, which is
responsible for the shift
in the way we care for
our community,” says
Joyce Murata, HMC
nursing supervisor.
“The expectation of our
staff is to treat everyone
with our very best self.
We are hardwiring
exceptional behavior.”
Espejo is forever
grateful to be rushed
for emergency surgery
in Hilo when
her appendix burst.
Her first surgery
was performed by
community surgeon
Dr. Gerald Lau and
her second by Dr.
Joshua Pierce of Hilo
Medical Center’s Hilo
Surgical Associates.
“I had total faith in
my surgeon, Dr. Pierce,”
Espejo says. “Hilo is
lucky Dr. Pierce chose
to practice here. He
could have gone anywhere
in the world,
but he chose us.”
he happiest of reunions
took place in early
2018 at Hilo Medical
Center with the Irie family,
community pediatrician Dr.
Darrett Choy and hospital staff
from a variety of departments.
They gathered to celebrate
the teamwork in providing
3-year-old Nawai, who
is now 4, treatment for her
rare condition called spinal
muscular atrophy, or SMA, a
degenerative disease that can
make it progressively harder to
breathe, move and vocalize.
Nawai was 4 months old
when she was diagnosed with
SMA. Shortly after her second
birthday and, after she
surpassed her life expectancy,
Nawai and her family learned
about some good news.
In December 2016, the first
drug ever to treat SMA was
approved by the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration after
proven success in clinical trials.
“When the treatment was
approved and after seeing
results from others receiving
the treatment in the trial, I was
hopeful,” says Nawai’s mom,
Wendy. “I told Dr. Choy about
it with a bit of urgency because
I knew the earlier my daughter
received it, the better and more
potential it had to work.”
Choy spent months arranging
for Nawai to be treated
at Hilo Medical Center.
“The goal was to help her
stabilize, and maybe even
improve,” Choy says. “The
collaboration with the hospital
and the other providers has
been amazing to me. I never
thought being in Hilo I’d get
this kind of procedure done.”
According to Wendy, since
the treatment began, her daughter
has been “more vocal, louder
vocalization,” with “a smile
starting to come back” and more
movement in her shoulders,
hands, arms, legs and feet.
“She has a chest rise when
she breathes, she only used to
belly breathe,” Wendy says.
“We really feel that it’s a
privilege that they trusted us to
do this,” says HMC chief Patient
experience officer Jeanean
Dillard, director of Surgical
Services and Intensive Care.
Caring for Nawai is just
one of the many ways Hilo
Medical Center’s “Go Malama”
transformation campaign is
working to take care of our
patients and community.
‘People at Hilo Medical Center
have been working hard to
make this place so good’
Going malama
for Nawai