‘A kid with a kind heart’
Shelburne youth Katie Hallett honoured to be chosen as the IWK Champion for 2022
Katie Hallett's family believes in miracles. They see one every day when Katie is in the room.
“We're incredibly proud of her strength and resiliency as she powers through every obstacle," says her mother Tami Harris. "She's doing really well despite her grim prognosis at birth and that's something to be extremely grateful for."
Not only grateful, but it is inspiring as well.
The 10-year-old of Shelburne has been chosen as the provincial 2022 IWK Champion, representing the children's hospital in Halifax.
“She will be the face of the IWK for the next year,” says her mom.
“She will be advocating for donations by sharing her story,” the mother says, and, depending on COVID, may attend some of the fundraisers held by corporate sponsors during the year as well as playing a big role in the annual IWK Telethon for Children.
The family feels it is important to try to give back to the hospital whenever they can, because the hospital has given so much to them.
“We're happy to take on this role as the champion child. We've been there, first-hand, for her to actually use a lot of the equipment and supplies donors have fundraised and donated their money towards," says Katie's mom.
Katie's journey at the IWK began at birth when she was diagnosed with Laryngeal Cleft Type IV, a condition causing life-threatening respiratory and feeding issues.
“When you're born, the trachea and esophagus are supposed to be two separate tubes, but with her when she was born it was all one tube,” explains Harris. “They had to reconstruct her trachea and esophagus.”
For the next 630 days, the IWK became Katie's home. Over her first six years, she had scores of surgeries to reconstruct her trachea and esophagus, with a few operations since.
For most of her life, she's had a tracheostomy tube to help her breathe. Last fall she was finally able to have it removed.
Ear, nose and throat surgeons performed the complicated and delicate procedure of reconstructing Katie's whole trachea and esophagus. It required the use of donor-funded equipment, such as a surgical telescope that connects to a camera allowing the surgeon to clearly see and perform surgery without large invasive incisions.
Surgeons have used these telescopes in at least 43 of Katie's many operations.
“We're also thankful for her team of doctors, the nurses, the respiratory therapists, the nurse practitioners and many others because I feel like they're our comfort, they're our security blanket," Harris says.
Harris says Katie still has a small multidisciplinary team that follows her and she typically has follow-up appointments every three to six months.
“As she's getting older, we're seeing lots of improvement," the mom says.
"We usually have to do a lot of preventive airway clearance with her to try and keep her airways as clear as we possibly can. She still requires a feeding tube. She's able to eat a lot of food by mouth but just not enough so she gets supplemental food through a feeding tube. That keeps getting better as she gets older too," she explains. "We're optimistic things will keep going in the right direction. To look at her you would have no idea what she's been through. She looks and acts like a typical 10-year-old.”
Katie loves listening to music, dancing, playing video games, playing with her friends,
playing outside in the snow, going swimming and playing with Shadow, her miniature poodle. In Grade 4, she is home-schooled, tutored by the school board. “She can't go to school due to COVID because of lingering lung issues that she has,” says her mom.
The family first found out last fall that Katie had been chosen as the 2022 IWK Champion. They shared the news with her on Christmas morning.
“She was emotional when she found out, crying happy tears. She was quite honoured to be chosen and recognized for the journey she's been through,” says Harris.
Selecting a patient each year to represent the IWK “is one of the hardest things we have to do,” says Hillary Forsyth, manager of Community and Corporate Giving with the IWK Foundation. “We consider them all champions.”
The IWK Foundation has worked with Katie in the past.
“She has helped us out in some of our donor initiatives to thank donors and our partners and helped share our fundraising stories so she was such as easy choice for us,” Forsyth says. “She's just a kid with a kind heart, she's really charismatic and she's got this enthusiasm to share her story to help others. She's so inspiring.”
In her role as IWK Champion, Katie will soon get to attend a virtual event to connect with other champions across Canada. "It allows the kids to build these relationships with kids across the country who might have similar experiences, or might have different experiences – to form that bond around what it means to be a kid who visits children's hospitals across the country,” Forsyth says.
“She will play a big role in helping us celebrate our donors across the Maritimes,” adds Forsyth. “Her role as a champion is also to be a role model for other kids who may be in hospital and may be going through something; who can see how Katie drew on her strengths.”
Katie will also have the opportunity to share her story, which is sure to be front and centre for the 38th annual IWK Telethon for Children that is still in the planning stages.
“The telethon is our largest fundraiser,” says Forsyth. “The telethon is so important to us as a not-for-profit charity to give back to the community. To share the stories of kids and families that their donations support. Without donor support the hospital wouldn't be the world-class facility that it is today and continues to be."
It's also an opportunity to join the Maritimes together.
"These are our kids and our families and because of you, the IWK is what it is today," Forsyth says. "It's also a great opportunity to recognize our donors who fundraise all year round. It allows us to tell their story and hopefully inspire others to do the same, to see themselves in some of the donors, patients and families that benefit from the telethon.”
Last year's telethon raised $6,630,585.
In 2021-2022, there have been 12,916 inpatient stays at the IWK; 254,206 IWK outpatient clinic visits; 22,635 visits to the IWK's Emergency Department (children and youth only) and 5,639 day surgery visits by women, children and youth from across the Maritimes.