Mercy Health Partners Makes A Difference In A Child’s Life

May 2, 2006 – Have you ever wanted to make a difference in the life of a child? Mercy Health Partners (MHP) has teamed up with local physicians and Heal the Children (HTC) to give a teenage boy a better quality of life.

Over the last two years, Drs. Patrick Meyer and Jeffrey Rewitzer, physicians with Foot and Ankle Specialists have become heroes to Eddie. A teenager from the Dominican Republic, Eddie was born with two club feet. At the age of 15, Eddie came to the United States through HTC, a national nonprofit humanitarian organization that is dedicated to providing donated medical and surgical care to underprivileged children from other countries.

When Dr. Rewitzer approached Roger Spoelman, President and CEO of MHP, Spoelman agreed to offer the hospital as the location for Eddie’s surgery. While at MHP, Eddie received anesthesia, prescriptions, nursing care and pediatric care from Dr. Danny Mikesell of Shoreline Pediatrics. All services where donated to Eddie by the physicians and hospital.

Eddie’s bones were fully formed by the time he arrived in Muskegon for his surgery. Two separate surgeries have been performed on each foot as well as a bioengineered apligraf on his heel during the first surgery. An apligraf is a living skin substitute that consists of living cells and structural proteins. The apligraf was needed to cover the open wound on Eddie’s ankle and develop skin over his bones. Eddie received his fourth and final surgery at MHP on February 9.

“It has been amazing to see the physical change in Eddie during this process. His feet were neglected in terms of the medical intervention that he needed and was not able to receive back home,” says Meyer. It has been an honor to be part of this experience, one that I will never forget.”

This is the first time that MHP has worked with HTC, but not for the foster parents that Eddie has been living with for the past two years. Tim and Pat Visser have had three children from the Dominican Republic brought into their lives through HTC in the last five years. Eddie is the first teenager that the Visser’s have had. Their other HTC children have included a 2-year-old boy and an 8-year-old boy; each of them came to the US for heart surgery.

This experience has been life changing for the Visser’s who have three children of their own. Additionally, they are currently licensed foster parents to two African-American boys. Through their experience with HTC, the Vissers have traveled to the Dominican Republic numerous times.

One of the Core Values of MHP is Care of the Poor and Underserved. MHP is committed to providing the best care within the community, the MHP community just got a little bigger.