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KLMNO POSTLOCAL Talk to us. Talk to newsmakers. Talk to each other. Join the conversation at
postlocal.com Gingerbread, gingerbread, gingerbread rock JOHN KELLY'S WASHINGTON
Mysterious plunge, miraculous revival
K
ellen Googin is the boy who shouldn’t have almost died.He’s also the boy who, once he went into cardiac arrest,
shouldn’t have lived. But here he is, a blond-headed almost-3-year-
old prowling a conference room at Children’s NationalMedical Center, methodically unscrewing a doorstop and then offering it to me for inspection. “There’s stuff we will never know,” says
Kellen’s father, Nick. “All we can be happy for is that he’s where he is today and go from here. . . . Everyone says he will catch up to his age group at some
point.Nothing will stop him. All the doctors say is at some point he’ll be running out with the other kids, kicking a ball.” The Anne Arundel County boy was born with
a genetic disorder—partial deletion of chromosome 17 of the short arm—that made him quite familiar to the staff at Children’s Hospital.He was treated by everyone from cardiology to ophthalmology. But it was a relatively minor procedure—to lower his undescended testicles and circumcise him— that brought Kellen to the hospital when he was 13 months old. Just after the anesthesia was administered, Kellen went into cardiac arrest. A code blue was called and an ever-growing
MATT MCCLAIN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST MabelMendez ofMabel’s Bakery finishes a fresh batch of gingerbread cookies in Clinton. The family-owned bakery is also known for its fruitcakes. TravelQ&A
What public transportation can you depend on for a last-minute departure Christmas Eve? Washington Post commuter columnist Robert “Dr. Gridlock” Thomson took on that and other questions during a live chat with readers Monday at
PostLocal.com.
Your holiday getaway
Q: I have a flight out of BWI on Christmas morning. Do you know whether the free shuttles from the Amtrak station will be operating?
Thomson: Yes, they’ll be operating. If people are going away for Christmas weekend, consider parking in the daily garage rather than the economy lots. It’s not going to be that much more expensive, and you’ll be sheltered from the possibility of a winter storm.
Q: I’ll be leaving for Charleston, S.C., from Crystal City as early as 4 p.m.Wednesday. It’s an eight-hour drive under normal circumstances down Interstate 95.How much do you think the holiday traffic would add to the travel time?
Thomson: There’s likely to be a getaway boomlet Wednesday afternoon, and it would add a bit to your travel time—particularly inNorthern Virginia. Leaving at off-hours is often very helpful, but one thing to keep in mind is that this can throw off your
body clock. You don’t want to be driving when your body is telling you that you should be asleep.Watch out for that.
Q: WillMetro be open regular hours for Dec. 24 and 25, or is there some other schedule?
Thomson:Metrorail will be open from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. Christmas Eve. The same schedule will apply on Christmas Day,NewYear’s Eve andNewYear’s Day. Metrobus will operate on a Sunday schedule
from Christmas Eve through Sunday, as well as fromNewYear’s Eve through Jan. 2. A modified weekday schedule will be in effect from Dec. 27 to 30.
MetroAccess will cancel all subscription trips on
Christmas Eve, Christmas Day,NewYear’s Eve and NewYear’s Day. All trips during those periods must be reserved separately.
6 Not all downhill
Washington Post Travel staffers took reader questions about holiday travel— including one about a quick ski jaunt— during a live chat with readers Monday on
PostLocal.com.
Hitting the slopes . . . and more
Q: What are the best ski lodges close by—within a three-hour drive—for a one-night trip? We ski a bit but are not the die-hard types.We
might do a little skiing followed by nice fireside dining, maybe a spa treatment, and a nice hotel room.
Carol Sottili: Wintergreen is a good choice.Has decent skiing, plus lots of amenities. Whitetail and LibertyMountain Resort are closer, but I like them better for day trips. There are many others that would qualify, including Wisp, Bryce andMassanutten, but Wintergreen ismy favorite in that group. Snowshoe and Canaan Valley have more terrain, but they are farther away.
6
MORE AREA SKIING Visit
washingtonpost.com/skiguide.
THE DAILYQUIZ
According to Manoj Jain’sarticle in today’s Health &Sciences section, one in seven of the patients experienced an adverse event such as ahospital-acquired infection, excessive bleeding or aspiration pneumonia. Those events, both preventable and not preventable, led to howmanydeaths ayear?
EARN 5POINTS: Find the answer,then go to
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Students are teaching the myopic adults how we should embrace all religions without discrimination. Maybe there is hope yet!”
—Reader dick-x, responding to an article on the growing enrollment of Muslim students at Catholic colleges in the United States and the connections Muslim and Catholic students have made with one another.
Today on
AWhite Christmas? Get forecasts, data and more at our new weather page. Visit
washingtonpost.com/weather.
Holiday dining Get recommendations and leave reviews for the latest spots.
washingtonpost.com/restaurants.
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medical team fought to get his heart beating. It performed CPR for 19 minutes and shocked him seven times, using tiny defibrillator paddles no larger than dominoes. A normal hearth rhythm was established and Kellen made it through the night. The question on everyone’s mind:How long had his brain been deprived of oxygen?
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2010
You voted
60% 40%
6
of PostLocal readers say wrapping paper, tied with a ribbon, is the only way to make a statement with gifts.
JOHN KELLY/THE WASHINGTON POST
Anesthesiologist Zena Quezado helped revive KellenGoogin after he went into cardiac arrest and watches his progress carefully.
Miraculously, an EEG the next day revealed
of PostLocal readers think gift bags work better.Who has the time for tape and scissors this time of year? —Online survey of Post readers as of Monday evening
mrwx: You spent time and money shopping for it. At least get some pleasure out of the recipient having a moment of anticipation.
Indy60: Gift bags for adults, but kids love to tear wrapping paper off—builds the anticipation. Of course, anything Santa brings to our house is left unwrapped, unboxed and ready to play.
MORE POLLS AND COMMENTS Visit
washingtonpost.com/user-polls.
full brain activity. SaysmomMichelle: “They looked at me and
said, ‘We have no explanation for the arrest and no explanation for him being alive.’ ” She thinks she knows why Kellen is alive. “I
truly believe that he’s here today because of Zena,”Michelle says. “I feel like she was our guardian angel that day. I feel like it was her mission to make sure that he lived. You’ll never be able to convince me otherwise.” Zena is Zena Quezado, the Brazilian-born
director of the hospital’s PainNeurobiology Laboratory. Quezado is an anesthesiologist. It was she who administered the drugs to put Kellen to sleep that day and who noticed his alarming fall toward death. “It was a very humbling experience for me,” Quezado says. “I’ve never had to tell a parent, ‘We’ve had a complication.’ . . . You can’t get involved emotionally with every single patient, otherwise you couldn’t do this job, but there are some patients that you just can’t help it.” Kellen is a bit of amystery. After he was
stabilized—and after he survived another scare a week later when his throat swelled shut after his breathing tube was removed—doctors tried to figure out what had happened. They have been unable to pinpoint the exact cause of the frightening episode but think it was a combination of Kellen’s special heart, the anesthesia drugs and a viral illness. “This is something that is very, very rare,” Quezado says. Anesthesiologists typically see their patients
only when they enter sleep and awaken from it. Not Quezado. “When Kellen was in the [Pediatric Intensive
CareUnit], Zena called me every day,”Michelle says. “She used to watch the monitor from home. I remember Zena calling in and saying, ‘I need somebody to look at that.’ ” Quezado hoists Kellen onto her lap. “I told
Michelle and Nick, Kellen is a very special patient for me,” she says. He’s the boy who shouldn’t have lived but did.
Helping others Please help ensure other children can receive
the same care as Kellen. To make a tax- deductible donation to our annual fundraising campaign, send a check or money order (payable to “Children’sHospital”) to Washington Post Campaign, P.O. Box 17390, Baltimore, Md. 21297-1390. To donate online with a credit card, go to www.washingtonpost. com/childrenshospital or call 301-565-8501.
kellyj@washpost.com
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