in his book healing children, he writes about his kooky or as a pediatric surgeon and gives advice to parents on how to find the best health care for their children. he recently talked about his book at politics and prose bookstore in washington, d.c.. >> [inaudible conversations] >> if i could have everybody's attention.d have e good evening. i'm the co- owner of politics and prose and on behalf of the entire staff, while some a few

quick administrative notes and nonotes andnow would be a time f your cell phones. when we get to the q-and-a part of this session we would ask that you make your way to that microphone because if you could see c-span is filming this evening and so are we. our staff would appreciate if you could fold up chairs that you are sitting in. it is a special pleasure for mel to be hosting. i first got involved.

in the bigger picture of medical research and the advancement of care he was a people person who connected with kids and their parents and chief of surgery and with the help of 150 million-dollar gift oversaw development which is focused on making surgery for children minimally invasive and pain-fr pain-free.f chief of surgery was the top jng

job. having shown a vision and administrative skills he was tasked to become the ceo to first physician to run the hospital under his leadership in the ranks of the nation's best medical center for two. health was restored and their futures. there ithere's a number of persl stories in history and he also offered at the end a short but useful section of advice for parents about how to get the best care for their children but there is a message in this book and that is the pediatric medicine for all of its advances

remains undervalued and under resourced compared to the attention given to adult diseases in this country. when he joined as a surgical fellow he worked for randolph in the nations capital. it's come a long way since then botbut many of us might not reae how fortunate we are to have a separate hospital devoted to kids with only about 3,000 in the united states. they focus primarily on health

care and curse makes a persuasive case in his book the pediatric specialty care and research should be a national n priority. if we can get care for kids right it will make caring for the health of adults so muche easier and more cost effective. please join me in welcoming kurt new man. [applause] it's hard to know what to say after the owner and proprietor. when you think about politicsyo and prose.

i'm looking out at all of you and seeing so many brand is is a special moment for me to see all of you there. i did want to say more about bradley and alyssa. they've been longtime friends of mine. i know this isn't supposed to be about children's national, it is in my book. one is with their own philanthropy that i don't think the business of the orthopedic department has ever been as good

as when your three kids were playing soccer. she's gone on to yale. so it is an honor to be here. this is an institution that hasn't been around and in washington, d.c. for almost 150 years.

they see so many faces of peopli that help make children's what it is and therefore this book is possible. i could use my entire time thinking people around the room and there are so many that i mai could think that i don't want to use up all my time doing that so i will try to individually. there's lots of great stories we could go all night but we are not going to do that.

about the most important partner throughout this process. they agreed i could tell the story of how we met, and it's in the book. s this is a little bit of a joke there's a spoiler alert. she's been with me every step of the way as i wrote this book saying first of all are you kidding. it is more important than ith thought it would be.

there's a lot of ways i couldyi talk about the book and why they wrote the book. you think about adult medicine and all the different. i think this path might help and this is a three d. printer with a replica of a baby's heart so you think about the human heart, and i tell a story in the book about a girl i was with her today on television if anybody's watching on channel seven. she was shot in the heart. when she came in, her heart was

about this big. it's maybe the size of a large walnut but this is what heart surgeons do every day. it's why i wrote the book around how different a baby's heart is. we think about our children differently but for medicine people think it is all may be

one thing. one-size-fits-all. in my career as a surgeon i would get stories and many of you were on the other end of thn phone call and what t would sayn this emergency department. they don't have a specialist, my child has a concussion and they have not seen too many children or they tell me the anesthesiologist i got a little bit angry and that is what motivated me to write the road. over 30 years of practice getting those kind of phone calls working with.

to get the message out, the reason i wrote the book is to try to provide true stories because i wanted to bring people into the world of pediatric medicines. the difference in a children's hospital tuesday it also does of for children.

washington, thank you for sayi g that is blessed to have a hospital that's completely focused on children. the whole biology is different. i will go back to the story i started with.ately

the emergency team got there and they knew what to do. that just isn't a given so we knew what to do. they got her heart going into gaming, it was bigger than this. there was a tiny little hole in her heart and as it came back to life and started beating and i know it sounds very dramatic but

i put my finger over the whole end it saved her life. [laughter] it's the most incredible thing we didn't know whether she would be able to first get off the toe operating table whether she would make it through. two days later she woke up and smiled with the breathing tube is still in and that's what kids are all about. they are resilient and they have this ability in story after story the resilience comes back into the great thing about pediatric medicine as we know

and take that into account. you think through how a child is going to develop so they can't caution is different than a 12 or 16-year-old or 20-year-old. he wants somebody that understands that where you can get in or out or maybe it is less costly. that's when i get angry people a spend much more time on where their kid is going to go to school, with soccer teams their kids would play for. we drive 200 miles for a game,

but people won't drive 5 miles to go to the emergency department at one of the besthe children's hospitals in the country. so that's what motivated me ii want people to understand that and then parents because it is easier to say you should do that but if you don't give people the tools it's amazing we don't give parents the tools to figure this out saying you should go to a neonatal intensive care nursery because it has all th specialists at all the things needed for a baby that looks

like it is going to be complicated ahead of time. there is a competition that's put in place to ask it hard for parents to figure that out. what i tried to do with the book is give parents some of the tools that it's okay to ask hard questions and to switch and finn the right thing and be to be deferential to physicians and hospitals but more and more you have to be an advocate and take on the role for your children.

when you do, the results are going to be better. if we take specialists for example and you look at the results of different treatments and we will take orthopedics for example you want an orthopedicgn surgeon that knows about the growth of the bones so in children you have to know about growth plates and interpret mris and x-rays in the face of that growth in mind. we were fortunate because our sons got the best orthopedic thb care in the country but it wasn't easy and there were some

serious injuries along the way. if things are taken care of properly and downright upfront,m you miss so much opportunity and that is a principle dealing with children there is so much we can do early and if you look at all the things we have in thentry country now whether it's mentali health, obesity, diabetes beer on the cusp to solve the early and we can prevent all of the things that have been early in adult diseases and that is one of the exciting things on the field medicine is a diagnosis

ahead of time. i told a story in the book about a family i've gotten to know. the biggest mistakes ever made as a surgeon more often when i didn't listen to the mother and that was true in my own home. here i am pontificating the fact he can barely breathe and turning blue. he says if your wife was in the. nicu -- there's so much we can

learn now. i told a story about a mother and grandmother that came to see me. they had been given some advice about terminating a db based on an ultrasound and that was by the obstetrician. to go through the story real quick, what they were told whenw they came to see me for a second opinion was not, termination wasn't necessary. this is something that could probably be taken care of after the baby was born. i had a great radiologist all she does is look at vb x-rays all day long.

why would you want a radiologist is the only part of the job that's all she did and she said definitively this baby is going to be fine. if it turned out to be true. the obstetrician was very m unhappy with me but to be fair after the baby was born she called me to say how wrong she had been and appreciated what hh had done. now she's a young girl doing great and i asked it wasn't just the mother's intuition on this story, it was the grandmother's intuition as well. i said what was it why did you come to me for a second opinion and she said he had a feeling we didn't want just a second opinion but we wanted an expert

opinion. so that's the theme that goes through the book. this whole world of pediatric medicine, children's hospitals and specialists is a different world. it's what we all deserve and want for our children and we are fortunate to have that here inue washington but that isn't true across the country. we need to do more. i'm also concerned i don't getet deep into it and think that it's important i say we are at a rear crossroads in our country so the conversations i hear are cutting things like medicaid, nih, givindoingall these things whenn the cusp of such terrific a discoveries. when you think about half of the

people that are on medicaid, half of the beneficiaries are children so it's going to get hurt. why would we want to do that? we ought to double down and putt more into our children. it's cost effective and smart medicine. we could prevent a lot of diseases. so i'm getting serious here. the book also tells funny stories on myself. i wasn't always destined to be a pediatric surgeon. i have my own health situation in medical school and that turned the tide. a i met some amazing mentors over the years that you will hearre about. one was an icon here in

washington, d.c. took care of so many children and families and to build one of the top departments of surgery and that is what brought me down here. i talk about some great pediatricians. great pediatricians here inon. washington. we talked about another incredible visionary who helped me think through how we could make children's national a leading hospital for children through and now i see one out of the corner of my eye that is here. he's probably the world expert

on childhood concussion. he's in the book. one of the hardest parts of writing the book was knowing what not to put in.people i there were so many people and stories. my editor is here and she's the one that really set you can't do that. [laughter] but she took these massive stories and helped me craft it into a book. i hope you and joy in it and ita way to help spread the word and i hope you feel empowered as you read about the value of what it

can offer parents and our country. i think it is something we can all rally around. l people say how long did it take and my answer is that it tookd about four years. my friend said you need to be telling the bees stories. don't make this book one of those books nobody reads.

[laughter]ep jok i keep joking how at the book sale there will be 20 books. being sold. that's why i'm autographing them with their names on them so i know who is returning the books for 10 cents. i kne know who you are. [laughter]y writ but it's really been 30 years that i've been thinking of writing this book because it's been an experience i had as a surgeon for 25 years and then ten years before that in training and education and i

will tell you why it's been worth it. because the kids that have come back to me and their families we've reconnected with, the stories are so amazing they are the heroes of the book and that is what drives the book. this week i was with a young man -- i will give away a bit of the story. we were out on the first date and i thought i would impress her.t call i got called in. the want to come down and see me operate, kind of cool. i thought it was going to be a quick and easy operation in chief of the impressed.

she came to observe and this baby had one of the most complicated things i have ever seen. i even called my boss to ask him for his advice and he said i guess you're on your own. i wasn't counting on that answer but i had some good colleagues that i called in and meanwhile i forgot about allison. i was trying to concentrate and figure this thing out. we sorted things out and did something you'll read about in the book. but with alice in the end of the evening did not go well. she was not impressed and she educated me how i needed to paya

attention to the baby's needs. he needed to be cuddled and somebody there so he knew there was somebody looking out for him because his mother wasn't there and babies know that stuff. but fast forward, we just came back to children's a couple nights ago for an event i was hoping for some of the doctors and a couple of the patients in the book. we stood there and i had been at his wedding this is after 22 operations i don't know how many operations of hospitalizations for somebody i never thought would get married and he now has a seven -month-old son and is the most healthy amazing baby

and tyler in some ways is the hero of the book says he has perfect genes but if he ever breaks his arm and bringing him to children's national. anyway the book is healingsigni children. i will be signing some books and i'm happy to take some questions now. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much for your words. i am a local college student on the autism spectrum and

regularly advocate for inclusion in the variety of context. after completing my education i can dream of working in a profession that it will berkingn possible to help individuals who have special needs andndspec particularly children to achieve their dreams. my question is what do you think is particularly important for individuals like myself considering working in the area to know and understand? >> first of all, congratulations. it sounds like you have a great career ahead of you doing wonderful things in school and i would like to talk to you more about your ideas and plans. i think what i've learned, and

there is a little story in the book doctor randolph used to sae you can never tell by looking at them how far a frog can jump so excuse my southern dialogue attempt by that we tend to categorize people and diagnose things way too quickly and we really need to think about the individual and a special potential of every individual. so i would say there's many things i want to say about the question. first, research. maybe autism isn't one thing.

so then this is maintenance problem and then there's georgia's problem. we lump it all together and that makes it hard to figure out wha is going on and then we tailor the approaches individually to people's situation and look at theithe potential and not wherey are right now so i would say we have a lot of work to do but people like you are championsfo and examples on what people cani achieve so thank you for that. [applause] >> i am not an audience plant. you answered my question already

but i do want to give you a shout out the nexus of my question as a person that works in health how do to fill your pipeline and to figure out that sort of click and i will give you an example personally when my son was going into surgery the surgeon said you have to d have a little faith and we did and it was wonderful. i remember going into anesthesiw he was all wrapped up in hise bn little blanket and we took the blanket off into the doctor said

he's going into surgery with his blanket. so how do you figure out all of the encounters based on cyan's but there is this faith not just working with adults with moms and dads and kids how do you do that? >> i have learned a lot. i am not the expert but i've learned a lot between now and the ceo of the hospital a lot of it is about listening. i have parents that have not so

much ideas but observations on how we can do things better and we do tend to focus on the medicine and science but what we are learning is more and more of the experience that's why the title of my book is aboutut healing the. it's a balance and i think one of the great things about the children's hospital when i try to talk about it is that whole dimension of art, music, schoolwork, friends, family thae

is critical and crucial and the science is beginning to catch up because the studies show when you have that, people heal moreh we have great friends and allies i would love to shout out to. people say how can you workad. there because it must be sad and depressing. most of the publishers except mine thought the book was to depressing and discouraging ands that it would be about children that were sick or didn't make it but they don't have that perspective and it takes on the

vibe of a happy place and it's our job to support that and reinforce and empower that queso feeling. i'm not sure if i'm answering the question there is a story in the book by a young man after town hall meeting said you were doing great things for children but i'm a teenager and you don't have anything for teenagers. we have our own music, we need our own space, our ow own video games. you'd need a hospital thatt respects that. so with some great partners we moved along that path.

it is a balance and you don't want to lose sight of the science. it's promising that so many things that were incurable at one point and now they are things we treat. we also never quite know what works sometimes. i told them of the stories in the book about a young man from washington but was in southvacai carolina for vacation with his family playing basketball and golf needed in the abdomen and went into shock. what happened was it cracked a

liver tumor and he started bleeding and went into shock. the family wanted him brought to children's for his treatment because if by the statistics even in the best case scenario he had a 10% chance of surviving this and he because it had spread and it was the worst kind of liver cancer he was in eighto grade, about to go into high school, it was the summer before that and so the statistics were against him and it's the most defeated by th the lifting of getting them because we knew we didn't get it all, just about everything but that isn't good enough when you're dealing withw this kind of cancer.

i talked to his parents and told him that. that was a certain serenity. but the boy didn't know that all he knew was he wanted to get better. within five months he made thehe baseball team with a cap in place than we thought we would have to do a liver transplant. there was no evidence cancer was never there. ever there. two years later he sent me a picture carrying the olympic torch in the atlanta olympics. he graduated college and went to business school and just got engaged to be married so even all for science it's got to stay individualist because you don't know when these kids will

surprise you every time and that's why you want doctors and a hospitathe hospital to have tt mindset >> one of the great pediatricians of all time. >> yo >> you are too kind but i won't take it. such a great question i'm going to ask this because my patients are down in southern marylandd. and they do come up tototh children's national question they gave me is what can parents do especially in advance quick mine what can they do to prepare themselves if there is an emergency besides having my nume phone number?

>> that's a great place to start because i think it is about preparation and education to know those resources but there's practical pointers. i pulled shamelessly pitched my book. i want to give parents practical advice so there is a section called the eight best ways to get the best medical care for your kids and the basic theme is preparation.e it just like you have a plan if there is a fire in your house, knowing where the fire escapes are handled by the union that for your children so you need to know ahead of time figuring out where you're going to take your child if there's an emergency.

maybe for other things that can wait you can make it to a pediatric emergency departmentpo but don't wait until that happens to find out how to navigate into the system. when you are in the middle of, the crisis that is a good time to figure all this out and that happens way too often. most people don't know whether their insurance covers a children's hospital or not and more and more these days it can be carved out of the rove plan.l you will probably want to switch it if they won't allow you to use a resource which is

hospital. you are a very wise and experienced pediatrician and you have a set of the specialists you would refer to so i would want to know if you are referring me to have surgery my child is going to have an anesthesiologist that's all they do. why would i want to take a chance i' on going to the surgey center or somewhere where the surgery may be the least complicated part of what is happening an when it's the anesthesia that can make theealy difference. these are questions you can ask ahead of time and sorting your i right to ask those questions just like you would if you were checking out a school or.

anything else. one of the things i advocate for us to be an active member of the child's team so if you are in a hospital, more and more hospitals encourageitals participation. don't be afraid to do that and there is usually resources to help you do that. some of the kids are on thectrua autism spectrum a little younger than you but one of the parents came to me and was angry because a lot of the things we would do in the hospital.

we didn't have that personalized approach so back to theabout pe personalized medicine every person there may be something that makes them feel more comfortable and relaxed.s so there is resources out there in bed in the hospital but how to tap in that it isn't made as easy as it should be for people to know that. the biggest thing is to check these things out in the then if you are in the special circumstance where you are a thinking about having a baby

going down that road to talk about where is the baby going to be born have a plan ahead of time. now if there is a complication was level of care are you talking about and if that isn't going to be enough where are you going to go or be sent and why is that the best place because you may want to switch and at the timthetime to have that diss when you are healthy and while you are not in a crisis situation to deliver the baby with and all hell is breaking loose. that is not the time.ituation

.. >> we have time for one more question. >> hello. you describe very convincingly the importance of teamwork and how that contributes to the outcomes and most of the descriptions understandably from a pediatric surgeon are from the surgical perspective but i also know that children's is very well-regarded for chronic care issues for children with diabetes and asthma. how is that replicated for kids with chronic conditions? >> well thank you. my good friend ann mahoney,

public health nurse. if i didn't credit the team then i would be remiss because it is a team sport. to get the best outcomes requires the team and i do talk a lot in the book about nursing in our chief operating officer for example is a nurse and that's one of the stories about how important it is and i thought it symbolize this to have a chief operating officer as a nurse. it would send a message plus she's terrific. she is the real deal. but it is about the team. it's about all of those supports that help children with chronic disease and because one of the great perspective so it's a lot

of these chronic diseases we can really have an impact on early and whether it's an early diagnosis and their achievements now. i talk a lot in the book about a couple of situations where cystic fibrosis that we would never see now because the treatments are so good. diabetes, we are making big advances. you need that perspective of children, development, compliance in kids that are so different than adults whether they are going to take their medicine or whether they are going to stick to a diet, the whole psychology of and if you don't have that team in place than the care and the outcomes are not going to be there. it really is that holistic approach and probably essential to that team is a great mother

and probably father. it's father's day i will throw a father plug in there too. siblings, we forget about siblings but this is the kind of approach you need to really get the best out of kids. [applause] >> i did want to add in case you are thinking i'm going to be a millionaire and retire all the proceeds go to the charity that supports research of children that -- most of which will go to children's national but also worthy institutions so thank you all for being here and your support. spread the word. [applause]

>> books are available and he will be up here signing. please form a line to the right of the table. please help us out by folding up your chairs. [inaudible conversations]