A Natural Evolution

April 5th was the first day we posted about a patient who was in the ICU awaiting a heart transplant. We had learned of her blog from a news story on that day. The television station had learned of the patient's story from the blog that her father was managing to help keep friends and family in the loop.

The patient's father had never run a blog before. The sole reason he started blogging was to get the word out about his daughter's situation, and to keep friends and family updated. He wasn't a social media strategist, nor did he have any aspirations for fame or accolades - he simply wanted to write about his daughter's fight to survive. And the writing was and continues to be heartfelt, passionate, and informative.

The passing-on of the patient's story took on an organic flow - it went from blog to the news media, to being posted through our various social media channels, back to the news media, and so forth. The community took notice - they started to send her personal emails through the hospital website. They sent well wishes through our Facebook page and her blog. The telling of her story happened through natural evolution - as natural as it can get when you combine traditional media, social media, and a father's infinite love for his daughter.

Her story was heard by many, and a surprise was planned and organized through posts on Facebook and her blog. On April 24th, over 100 of the patient's friends, family and strangers who had followed her story wore the shirts being sold on her blog and gathered in the park across from her hospital window, where they formed a "heart" and sang songs to her, encouraging her to get well soon. The St. Louis Fire Department showed up unexpectedly, and lifted a firefighter via the ladder five flights into the air to show her a t-shirt and tell her they were rooting for her. A local news station covered it, and it was great to see.

This is a great example of how a partnership of different mediums can form naturally, and produce incredible results. Sure, we received more traffic than usual to our blog, and our Facebook fanbase increased during this time. But that's not why we told her story, and continue to tell it. We do it because our audience told us to. And we do it because it's a part of the exceptional care we try to provide to our patients.