Toddler’s grateful family awards scholarship
Two and a half years after Imogen Padmore nearly died from a superbug infection, her family has established a scholarship in her name for a respiratory therapy student, in honour of the man who helped save her life.
Today, Imogen is a healthy toddler, but when she was one, mother Christabel Padmore feared she might die. The superbug infection triggered a complete respiratory failure in a matter of days.
Padmore remembers the agonizing wait at Victoria General Hospital for a helicopter to take Imogen to B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver on the night of Jan. 26, 2015, a flight that was delayed 12 hours because of heavy fog. Padmore’s only comfort was the focused attention by respiratory therapist Jason Dennison, who kept Imogen breathing throughout the night.
“We spent the whole night thinking our kid may not live through the night to get on this helicopter,” Padmore said. “And the only person who seemed like they had any control over the situation at all was the respiratory therapist.”
When Imogen turned three in January, her grandfather Tim Padmore came up with the idea to develop an award in her name to help future respiratory therapists.
“The award itself runs until Imogen’s 16th birthday,” said Tim Padmore, who asked all award recipients to send Imogen a birthday card on Jan. 15.
“So she gets a piece of this, too,” Tim Padmore said. “She’ll have a little collection of birthday cards by her 16th birthday.”
Imogen’s Award was presented Wednesday night to Bianca VerdeRios, a 27-year-old Thompson Rivers University student. It will be presented annually and will have a monetary value of between $3,500 and $5,000. Thompson Rivers is the only university in B.C. that offers a respiratory therapy program.
Christabel Padmore said while doctors and nurses get much of the credit for their life-saving work, unsung heroes such as respiratory therapists get much less recognition.
Padmore said it was crucial for Imogen to get to B.C. Children’s Hospital, which had the right type of ventilator that could regulate her breathing. While waiting in Victoria, Dennison worked for 12 hours with less-than-ideal equipment as Imogen’s oxygen levels reached dangerous highs of 70 to 90 per cent. (Normal oxygen levels are around 30 to 40 per cent.)
“It very much felt like her life was in his hands,” Padmore said. “They did such a good job of managing her overnight that she wasn’t as desperate as she had been.”
Once Imogen was airlifted to B.C. Children’s Hospital the next morning, she was put onto a lifesupport machine called pediatric extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Within days, Imogen recovered and was taken off the machine and kidney dialysis.
Imogen spent six weeks recovering in hospital, mostly at the pediatric intensive-care unit. She finally returned to her family’s Victoria home in March 2015.
Padmore said Imogen hasn’t had so much as a cough since then. She’s energetic, loves to dance and is getting ready to attend kindergarten next year.
Dennison, who was on hand to present the award to Verde-Rios on Wednesday, told the Times Colonist working on Imogen “was one of the more challenging moments of my career: the logistics, the weather and how sick she was.” He said the award “sends a message to students that this job is a very valued profession and that we can make a difference in patients’ lives.”