Just what the doctor ordered
Lizzy Olson, 13, center, and little sis Katherine Olson, 8, make their own pizzas with server Bekah Zufelt on Tuesday evening at Tito's Italian Grill. The Olson family, of Moscow, stayed a night at The Coeur d'Alene Resort before Make-A-Wish Idaho and Northwest Specialty Hospital gave Lizzy the opportunity to be a surgeon for a day to fulfull her wish. (DEVIN WEEKS/Press)
Dr. Lizzy Olson fills out patient paperwork at the beginning of her day at Northwest Specialty Hospital in Post Falls. Lizzy's dream is to become a surgeon and on Wednesday Make-A-Wish Idaho help make her dream come true. Lizzy's sister Katherine, right, was nurse for the day.(LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Dr. Roger Dunteman, an orthopedic surgery specialist, helps Lizzy Olson fill out paper work as they make rounds visiting patients at Northwest Specialty Hospital on Wednesday. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
One of the requests of Lizzy Olson's wishes was red shoes because she knows surgeons need to wear shoes that can get dirty in the operating room. On her right is her "nurse" sister Katherine. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Doctor Lizzy Olson helps remove a leg wrap from Robert Hovish during her Make-A-Wish day Wednesday at Northwest Specialty Hospital. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Dr. Roger Dunteman
Doctor Lizzy Olson carefully escorts Northwest Specialty’s own nurse, Mary Spratkes, out to her car after being admitted for a minor surgery. Lizzy's wish was to be a surgeon for a day. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
“Dr. Lizzy, OR 3, stat. Dr. Lizzy, OR 3, STAT!”
The 13-year-old’s bright brown eyes popped open. She jumped up when the page came over Northwest Specialty Hospital’s public address system on Wednesday.
She rushed out of the sunroom and raced to the patient’s room.
The consensus among the staff who saw her charge down the hall: “Wow, if only all doctors were as lightning-fast as Dr. Lizzy!”
Lizzy Olson, of Moscow, is crazy about “Grey’s Anatomy,” the medical drama that premiered in 2005 and is going into its 16th season. Lizzy knows the characters, the specialized medical terminology, the compelling stories. Most of all, she knows precisely how things are done at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, from CPR techniques to the red shoes surgeons wear.
Does she know each season by heart?
“Yep!” Lizzy said in her sweet, agreeable way.
Lizzy dreams of being a surgeon. She has an uncontrolled seizure disorder, so Make-A-Wish Idaho and Northwest Specialty Hospital teamed up to make that dream come true for the imaginative teen. Northwest Specialty CEO Rick Rasmussen said she certainly did her homework before drafting her wish request. In her letter, she listed specific things like “wearing my own white coat over scrubs,” “explaining a procedure to patients” and “following up with them post-operation to explain everything went well.”
“When I first heard about Make-A-Wish and about how many kids in North Idaho did not have their wishes granted last year, it really tugged at my heart strings,” said Rasmussen, who also serves on the new Make-A-Wish Idaho North Idaho Regional Council. “When we heard about this opportunity, I thought, ‘I’m going to find a way to make this happen.’”
From the moment Lizzy and her family arrived, they were treated like royalty. Medical professionals and staff cheered and held signs that all together read, “Your wish is coming true!”
“If they could have left their patients, we could have had 100 people out here,” Rasmussen said. “We are so excited. And to see her smile, it just made it worth it.”
That brilliant smile spread to every person Lizzy encountered throughout the day as she and her sister, “Nurse” Katherine, 8, made their hospital rounds. They were presented with their own white lab coats, stethoscopes and scrubs.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” said patient care coordinator Sam Bishop, who grinned ear-to-ear as she handed Lizzy a stack of medical charts to review.
“My daughter has a tumor in her right eye, so we’ve gone through this whole thing,” Bishop said.
“We’ve had a family member in Boise who was a part of Make-A-Wish and they sent her to Florida to Disney World with her family. This is truly an amazing thing to be a part of.”
In Dr. Adam Duke’s office, a nameplate that read “Dr. Lizzy, Chief Surgeon” sat on the desk where she signed mock paperwork that records department staff created from actual patient charts. They replaced the patient information with names and addresses of characters from “Grey’s Anatomy,” one of many details staff members lovingly contributed to Lizzy’s special day.
“This is more than what we expected,” said Lizzy’s mother, Laura Olson. “I haven’t seen her this happy for so long.”
Lizzy, her surgical scrub cap printed with frogs, was given access to a real patient who needed a real surgery. Northwest Specialty’s own nurse, Mary Spratkes, was admitted for a minor surgery to fix a torn meniscus on one of her knees. Dr. Roger Dunteman, an orthopedic surgery specialist, had given Lizzy a model of the human knee to keep so she had a better idea of what the procedure entailed.
“I’m just really glad you’re here to help me,” Spratkes said to Lizzy, whose sister stood nearby. “You’re a great team.”
Lizzy reported to her entourage that “the patient is good to do surgery” and “her vitals are good.”
“It’s been exciting to see Lizzy’s dream come true right in front of her eyes,” said Lizzy’s and Katherine’s aunt, Tina Olson. “You see her eyes lit up. It will be a day that she’ll never forget.”
“Me too,” Katherine added. “I always want her to be happy. When she’s sad, I feel sad. When she’s happy, I’m happy.”
Make-A-Wish Idaho is a nonprofit committed to giving children with life-threatening and critical medical conditions experiences that they’ll treasure throughout their lives. Sometimes they go to Disney World, sometimes they have superhero parties, but not many have requested to spend the day hanging out in a hospital to help others.
“Our medically fragile kids, understandably, look up to their medical teams,” said Jessica Budzianowski, Make-A-Wish Idaho’s development director. “They are wish kids' heroes.”
At the end of the day, Dr. Lizzy was still all smiles. She sat in a chair in the hospital lobby next to one of her volunteer wish granters, Kimberly Carper, who helped Make-A-Wish Idaho deliver this surgically perfect day.
“I’m doing great,” Lizzy said, giving two thumbs up. She said "everything!" was her favorite part of the day, even having “Grey’s Anatomy” on the TV in the sunroom when she had some down time.
"Even the guy patient said when it hurts a lot, he’d call me,” she said, gushing over her experience visiting patients and making sure they're doing OK.
And Dr. Lizzy confirmed: This will be a day she’ll remember forever.