Mixing medicine and her love for children
Finalist:  Patricia A. Keener, M.D.

By: Jolene Ketzenberger

     It is a heartbreaking story:  An 18-month-old baby starts to choke while in the care of a babysitter.  The sitter, unable to help, rushes the child to the emergency room only to see efforts at resuscitation fail.  Dr. Patricia Keener, then with Community Hospital, was especially saddened by the all-too-common occurrence.  The toddler was the child of her close friend.
     "Everyone said, 'Isn't that a shame,'" recalled Keener's colleague, Dr. Richard Schreiner, "but Pat Keener did something about it."
     What she did was develop a program to give young babysitters the lifesaving skills needed to prevent such tragedies.  Clearing a blocked airway is so easy to learn, Keener said.  "It's something I could teach people in a minute.  That prompted me to start Safe Sitters."  The internationally recognized program has taught almost a half a million young babysitters rescue skills, basic first aid, child care and behavior management techniques since 1982.  Keener is medical director of the program, which has more than 800 training sites in 50 states, Canada and England.    

Excerpt from Indianapolis Business Journal supplement Health Care Heroes - VOL. 22 NO. 52, March 4-10, 2002