Several months ago, a handsome young man, dressed in surgical scrubs, stood in the doorway of the Holding Room and asked: “Do you remember me?”

I struggled for a minute. I assumed he was a resident or medical student. His smile did look familiar, but . . . no, I couldn’t remember him. Continuing, he said: “My name is Matt Massey.”  With that, I didn’t know whether to cry or shout. “Matt? Matt Massey? There is no way I could ever forget you!”

Matt told me that he was a medical student doing an orthopedic rotation here at Le Bonheur.  How time flies!  In 1980, when I first met Matt, he was an adorable two-year-old little boy. Matt’s thirteen-month-old baby sister, Amanda, was a patient at the hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, where I worked at the time.

My first contact with this family came early one morning when I got off the elevator. Standing in the hallway was a lovely young woman talking to one of our Pediatricians. She was crying. As I walked by, her eyes caught mine. I continued to my office and said a prayer for this lady. As I looked up, I saw her standing in my doorway. She told me her name: Jo Anne Massey. She knew who I was. I had worked with the child of one of their friends . . . Sarah Shelton, a sweet little girl who had Cystic Fibrosis.

Sarah too was an angel who touched many hearts.)

I asked Jo Anne if she had a child here, and she replied, “My baby girl.”

With that statement my relationship with the Massey Family began. Her daughter, Amanda, was in Intensive Care, diagnosed with Ryes Syndrome.

Jo Anne’s husband was Dr. Boyd Massey, a young and well-respected ENT doctor. Their children, Brad, Matt, and Amanda, were the center of their lives.  Brad and Matt called their sister “Missy”.

For two weeks this dear child gallantly fought for her life. During this time, I became close to Jo Anne, Brad, and Matt. The boys loved Bernard, and I fell in love with the entire family. Brad had his fourth birthday party during this time. (What a happy and yet sad day.) Boyd and Jo Anne were a part of a unique bond of friends. Every day their friends would gather to sit with them. Friends such as theirs are rare, but it was easy to love this family.

On the morning of May 29, 1980, before their host of friends arrived, Boyd and Jo Anne quietly picked up Missy and held her in their arms. This would be the last morning they would hold their daughter. As Boyd and Jo Anne rocked and kissed their baby girl, Missy’s doctor turned off the ventilator.

Because most of the doctors who worked on the Pediatric Unit knew them personally, many doctors had gathered for this final moment. I watched these grown men cry as if their own child had passed away. Amanda was my first patient to die.

While I was at the hospital in Jackson, I would see Jo Anne and the boys from time to time. They came early to Bernard’s Birthday Party to help decorate. They participated in a TV news special featuring Bernard. They gave toys in Amanda’s name on her birthday. With the money their friends had raised, a beautiful waiting room was built for the families whose children were in PICU.

When Matt was around ten-years-old, I saw him one day standing alone outside the door of “Amanda’s Room”. Matt still thought about his sister who had once been an important part of his life. That was the last time I saw Matt.

Update: Matt presently lives in New Orleans

where he is completing his orthopedic surgery residency.

He got married on January 28, 2006.