Bringing balm for burns
SickKids’ Charis Kelly’s breakthrough procedures ease the pain in burn unit
It’s been 18 months since their little girl was rushed to SickKids with serious burns — and Janice and Martin’s lives changed forever.
Those first hours were a blur of paperwork, questions, fears, tears, confusion and guilt, as the couple kept vigil over Sarah, then 5, her tiny body wrapped in infection-fighting bandages.
But in the light of morning, devastation and despair turned to hope and healing for the family, as nurse practitioner Charis Kelly enveloped them in her care. “It was tragic and very surreal,” Martin recalls.
Kelly was very realistic and reassuring. “She didn’t try and sugar-coat anything, but did it in a very compassionate way — with empathy and without judgment.”
Each day, their bond grew stronger. “It’s hard to articulate,” says Janice. “Charis is very special. She was a lifesaver in so many ways.”
About 70 per cent of patients in the Sick Kids unit are scald-burn victims between the ages of 1 and 2. Some are babies, not yet old enough to speak.
Kelly advocates for all those patients and their families. Her daily schedule is packed, starting at 7 a.m. and often ending in the evenings at home, when her Blackberry finally goes silent after a long day of calls and texts from parents, patients and colleagues.
“Charis makes you feel like you’re her only patient and family,” says Martin. She and the rest of the burns team made the nightmare bearable, adds Janice.
When the family learned Kelly had won The Star’s 12th annual Nightingale Award, they were overjoyed.
“She’s so deserving,” says Janice, adding that all the burns unit staff are amazing. “But Charis is just different.”
It’s something Dr. Joel Fish, medical director of the burns program, has heard many times since he joined the team four years ago.
Fish sees the impact the team has on the young victims and their families — especially Kelly, whom he nominated for the Nightingale award.
“Burns are such a painful and difficult time for patients and families,” he says.
“Charis makes you feel like you’re her only patient and family.”
MARTIN FATHER OF BURN VICTIM
“There are few people that would ever dedicate themselves to a clinical practice where permanent scars are common and family guilt over preventable accidents prevails. It takes a very special person with unique skills.”
Fish says Kelly combines expertise with compassion and strong communication and collaboration skills, which yield fantastic outcomes.
She improved the unit’s method of dressing burn wounds, which Fish says has had a profound effect on patients, who now leave hospital in two days, instead of 10. They heal sooner, take fewer narcotics, and rates of surgery for skin grafts have declined.”
To reduce the psycho-social impact of burns on children, which can be permanent, Kelly advocates sedating kids for painful dressing changes. She’s also a big proponent of feeding patients homecooked meals instead of “hospital grub,” which has almost eliminated the use of painful feeding tubes.
One of her biggest steps to promote healing is being there for kids when they go back to school.
Fish recalls a recent phone call from a tearful mother, who wanted to thank the team generally and Kelly, specifically. Kelly had accompanied the woman’s son back to class, which she said was the hardest moment of his young life.
“This is a profound moment, as there are some children who are ashamed and embarrassed about the scars and choose to hide,” explains Fish. “I would argue this level of nursing care has saved this child from a future of hiding from his burn injury.”
Kelly says helping patients get better, and giving them hugs and high-fives as they leave the hospital, is why her job has become a labour of love.
Kelly, who has degrees in biology and nursing from Queen’s University, joined SickKids after she graduated in 2000.
“It’s the only place I wanted to work,” says the 39-year-old mother of two: Cooper, 6, and Findley, 4.
“My kids are the best thing in my life. Being here (at SickKids) is the next-best thing.”