Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Running for Resilience: Lou Fragoso’s Mission to Honor Children's Strength

Transcript

Running for Resilience: Lou Fragoso’s Mission to Honor Children's Strength · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome everyone to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
• 0:02
  I'm Ryan Mohammed, writer and moderator with Becker's
• 0:05
  Healthcare. And I'm thrilled to have with me
• 0:06
  today Lou Forgoso,
• 0:08
  president and CEO of Manning Family Children's in
• 0:11
  New Orleans. Lou, welcome to the podcast. We're
• 0:13
  very excited to have you join us today,
• 0:15
  especially for the first time. To get us
• 0:16
  started, would you mind please introducing yourself and
• 0:18
  telling us a bit about your background?
• 0:20
  Yeah. Hi. It's a pleasure to be here
• 0:22
  with you, Mariah. My name is Lou Fragoso,
• 0:24
  president and CEO for Manning Family Children's.
• 0:28
  Been here in New Orleans for the last
• 0:30
  six and a half years. Originally,
• 0:32
  born and raised on the South Side Of
• 0:33
  Chicago.
• 0:34
  Had the, really honor of being at Lurie
• 0:37
  Children's in Chicago, and then, was recruited to
• 0:40
  Houston where I was at Texas Children's for
• 0:42
  about,
• 0:43
  six years, and now I've been here for
• 0:45
  the last six and a half, and it's,
• 0:47
  it's been amazing.
• 0:49
  Wonderful. Thank you so much for giving us
• 0:51
  that background. So,
• 0:52
  Lou, for those who aren't familiar, the Leadville
• 0:55
  Trail A Hundred is considered one of the
• 0:57
  most demanding ultra marathons in the country. Can
• 1:00
  you start by describing what the race is
• 1:02
  and why you chose to take it on,
• 1:04
  not just once, but for the third time
• 1:06
  now?
• 1:07
  Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. The way when you put
• 1:10
  it that way, you're right. Why am I
• 1:11
  attempting this a third time? But the,
• 1:14
  the Leadville one hundred trail race, it is,
• 1:17
  one of the oldest and most iconic
• 1:19
  and toughest ultra marathons in the country.
• 1:23
  Started over forty years ago. I think it's
• 1:25
  the second oldest ultra marathon in the country.
• 1:28
  And it starts in, the highest city in
• 1:30
  North America, which is Leadville, Colorado, which is
• 1:33
  at 10,200
• 1:34
  feet.
• 1:35
  And the race traverses,
• 1:37
  a 100 miles across the Colorado Rockies.
• 1:41
  And so it is a incredibly intense race.
• 1:44
  All 100 miles needs to be completed in
• 1:46
  under thirty hours,
• 1:48
  and the race takes place between essentially 10,000
• 1:51
  feet and 13,000
• 1:53
  feet.
• 1:54
  Wonderful. Thank you so much for giving us
• 1:56
  that, information. Definitely does sound demanding.
• 2:00
  And I'm sure for you,
• 2:02
  this isn't just about a medal or finishing
• 2:04
  the race,
• 2:05
  but, obviously, about the the kids you serve.
• 2:07
  Can you talk about the moment that clicked
• 2:09
  for you,
• 2:10
  and how it changed your mindset going into
• 2:12
  the race?
• 2:13
  Yeah. Well, I think you when you kinda
• 2:15
  started us off, you're saying, this is my
• 2:16
  third attempt.
• 2:18
  So I've attempted this two other times,
• 2:20
  and just to give a little background. So
• 2:22
  the race, like I said, has to be
• 2:23
  completed in a certain time frame, and there's
• 2:25
  certain time cutoffs along the route.
• 2:27
  The first year I did it two years
• 2:29
  ago, I missed the,
• 2:31
  time cutoff at, I think, mile 45 by
• 2:33
  about a minute.
• 2:35
  And then last year, I attempted it again.
• 2:37
  I missed a time cutoff at the 100
• 2:39
  k mark.
• 2:40
  So that's about mile 62.
• 2:43
  And now this year will be my third
• 2:44
  attempt. And so now your question is, how
• 2:46
  does this all get connected to
• 2:49
  our mission here at the hospital?
• 2:51
  So here's how the story goes.
• 2:53
  And my staff will tell you this. I
• 2:55
  get a lot of ideas while I'm out
• 2:56
  running and training. It's where I get some
• 2:58
  of my best ideas.
• 2:59
  And so I signed up again,
• 3:02
  and this will be my third year doing
• 3:03
  it.
• 3:04
  And
• 3:05
  I was on a long run. I think
• 3:07
  I was on a 26 mile training run.
• 3:10
  It was one of those days, you know,
• 3:11
  it's just you weren't feeling it, and that
• 3:13
  happens. It was a particularly rough day. It
• 3:15
  was hot, you know, here in New Orleans
• 3:17
  and humid, and I was just struggling. I
• 3:20
  was, I was on the struggle bus. I
• 3:22
  was in the pain cave. And as I
• 3:24
  think of myself, like, why am like, seriously,
• 3:26
  like, why am I doing this again? You
• 3:27
  know, like, those doubts kind of started creeping
• 3:29
  in.
• 3:31
  But often while I'm running, I'm also
• 3:34
  thinking. Lot of there's you you got a
• 3:35
  lot of time yourself. You're processing,
• 3:38
  and I think a lot about work.
• 3:39
  And one of the things I started thinking
• 3:41
  about during that run-in those moments when I
• 3:43
  was doubting and thinking myself, like, do I
• 3:45
  really wanna do this again?
• 3:47
  I started thinking about our our kids
• 3:50
  here at the hospital and
• 3:52
  what they go through.
• 3:54
  And it really clicked for me. It's like,
• 3:56
  our kids
• 3:58
  every day
• 3:59
  face their own mountains.
• 4:01
  Like, every day, I see it. And they
• 4:04
  are battling some of the toughest diseases, toughest
• 4:07
  diagnosis,
• 4:08
  whether it's cancer, whether it's sickle cell,
• 4:11
  whether it's depression, anxiety, whether it's spina bifida.
• 4:14
  Like,
• 4:15
  I see it every day. They battle.
• 4:18
  And these kids are here,
• 4:20
  sometimes it's a week, a month, two months,
• 4:23
  six months, a year.
• 4:25
  We've had, you know, one of our kiddos
• 4:27
  that's been here, you know, five hundred days.
• 4:30
  And then it hit me. I was like,
• 4:31
  these kids have no quit in them. Like,
• 4:33
  they are battling
• 4:35
  every day
• 4:36
  fighting through and pushing through and overcoming, and
• 4:39
  they they never give up.
• 4:42
  And that just kinda hit me. It's like,
• 4:44
  there's, like, that's it right there. Right? Like,
• 4:46
  you can't give up.
• 4:48
  There is and and and it's kind of
• 4:50
  this message that I just in in terms
• 4:52
  of how I live my life, but it
• 4:54
  really just connected to personal and professional
• 4:57
  is, you know, you gotta finish what you
• 5:00
  started.
• 5:02
  And I think about that with our kids
• 5:03
  and what they push through and this transformative
• 5:06
  process that they're going through while they're here,
• 5:10
  pushing through the next chemo session, pushing through
• 5:12
  the next bone marrow transplant, the next surgery,
• 5:14
  the next needle stick.
• 5:16
  And on the other end of that
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  and our physicians often call it this rebirth,
• 5:21
  a second birthday.
• 5:23
  You know, they're they're transformed, and they have
• 5:26
  this new life and their future ahead of
• 5:28
  them. And so all of that clicked for
• 5:30
  me in terms of, you know, I shouldn't
• 5:31
  be thinking any shouldn't have any of these
• 5:33
  doubts about not wanting to do this, about
• 5:36
  complaining, about having some sort of excuse because
• 5:38
  our kids certainly don't, and they push through
• 5:40
  and they overcome,
• 5:41
  and they're the inspiration and they're the motivation.
• 5:44
  And then I called Kristen Robinson, our vice
• 5:47
  president of marketing. I said, Kristen, I got
• 5:48
  a great idea. I'm like, I wanna run
• 5:50
  this race in honor of our kids and
• 5:52
  have every mile
• 5:54
  named after one of our kids so we
• 5:56
  can share their stories of struggle and strength
• 5:58
  and courage and resilience and how they face
• 6:01
  their mountains
• 6:02
  every day and overcome,
• 6:04
  and also honor the teams that help them
• 6:06
  through that. We have some of the most
• 6:08
  amazing people
• 6:09
  that help our kids fight and battle every
• 6:12
  day.
• 6:13
  And so that's kind of where all this
• 6:15
  kinda connected is is a way to share
• 6:18
  the amazing stories that are our kids.
• 6:21
  And, yeah, so we we've had a lot
• 6:23
  of fun with it. A 100 miles, 100
• 6:25
  kids, one mission.
• 6:27
  Their stories are amazing. The teams that serve
• 6:29
  them are amazing, and it's basically
• 6:31
  about there's there's no quit in our kids.
• 6:33
  They never give up. There are stories of
• 6:35
  overcoming
• 6:36
  and strength. So
• 6:38
  that's how it all, came together,
• 6:41
  Mariah.
• 6:42
  Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Definitely inspiring. And as you
• 6:45
  stated,
• 6:46
  each mile of the race is dedicated to
• 6:48
  a patient
• 6:49
  at your system.
• 6:51
  And answer this a little bit, but how
• 6:52
  do those stories stay with you during the
• 6:54
  race, and how do they influence your leadership
• 6:57
  when you're back at the hospital?
• 6:59
  Yeah. I mean, so
• 7:01
  just even to connect it, I mean,
• 7:03
  Brian Morello, for example, one of our kiddos.
• 7:06
  He's 15 years old.
• 7:08
  Spina bifida.
• 7:10
  That kid's had more surgeries than birthdays.
• 7:13
  When he was born,
• 7:14
  you know, they said he'd have no quality
• 7:16
  of life that he'd never get out of,
• 7:18
  his bed.
• 7:20
  And this kid now, despite having more surgeries
• 7:22
  than birthdays,
• 7:24
  he's an athlete.
• 7:26
  He
• 7:27
  is
• 7:28
  basketball.
• 7:29
  He's been racing. So me me and Brian,
• 7:32
  two years ago,
• 7:33
  decided to do our first 10 k together,
• 7:36
  here at the Crescent City Classic in New
• 7:38
  Orleans.
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  And two years ago, you know, it was
• 7:40
  his his first 10 k, and he finished
• 7:43
  it in about an hour. And this last
• 7:45
  year,
• 7:46
  like, he came in at, like, forty four
• 7:48
  minutes.
• 7:49
  And so now he has aspirations
• 7:51
  of going into the Paralympics,
• 7:54
  you know, and his future years and competing
• 7:56
  in the Olympics.
• 7:57
  And it's exactly like, this is a kid
• 7:59
  that literally potentially has every excuse in the
• 8:02
  world to not continue to push and fight,
• 8:05
  and he doesn't. He wears a hat that
• 8:07
  says embrace the suck.
• 8:09
  And he is gonna meet me at Mile
• 8:11
  99 and pace me in for the last
• 8:14
  mile because he is our kid that we
• 8:16
  have named, mile 100 after, Brian Rello. So
• 8:19
  he's like, mister Lou, I wanna head out
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  there. He goes, I wanna pace you in
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  for the last mile.
• 8:24
  I'm like, alright.
• 8:25
  And so, you know, that just gives you
• 8:27
  an idea of their strength and the inspiration
• 8:30
  that they provide.
• 8:31
  You know, there's we got another one of
• 8:33
  our kids.
• 8:34
  This kid's his name is Drew.
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  Like, he's a swimmer. He's his kid's in
• 8:39
  high school.
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  And,
• 8:42
  like, it this is just the most amazing
• 8:44
  story. So this kid, he broke his hip.
• 8:46
  Right? And he was at the hospital needing
• 8:49
  rehab, but he's a swimmer. And his team
• 8:51
  had made it to state for the swim,
• 8:53
  finals.
• 8:55
  But they wouldn't be able to compete if
• 8:57
  he wasn't there to compete.
• 8:59
  And so he decided that he was gonna
• 9:01
  compete in the state finals in the swim
• 9:03
  meet with a broken hip. So his team
• 9:05
  lowered him into the pool so he could
• 9:07
  swim. He did his backstroke
• 9:09
  competition,
• 9:11
  finished. They had to pick him up out
• 9:12
  of the pool,
• 9:14
  and they won state
• 9:16
  with him swimming with a broken hip.
• 9:19
  And then
• 9:20
  he doubles down, and there's one of our
• 9:22
  little patients, Blakely,
• 9:23
  who, he learns has cancer, who she lives
• 9:26
  in his neighborhood.
• 9:27
  And he then decides to fundraise for her,
• 9:31
  by getting a swim team together, and they
• 9:33
  called it laps for Blakely.
• 9:36
  And so here's one of our patients
• 9:38
  who showed the strength and the resilience to
• 9:40
  support his team fight through the pain of
• 9:41
  a broken hip, and then the character
• 9:45
  to say, you know what? Now I'm gonna
• 9:46
  fundraise for another patient,
• 9:49
  because she has cancer, and I wanna raise
• 9:50
  awareness of her story.
• 9:52
  It just like, it it it doesn't end.
• 9:55
  And when you think back to,
• 9:57
  you know, how we
• 10:00
  run this hospital, I mean, this is about
• 10:02
  helping kids, bottom line.
• 10:04
  It is about
• 10:06
  supporting our the teams that do that and
• 10:09
  the strength and the resilience that it takes
• 10:11
  to put the team together and the crew
• 10:12
  together to support our kids.
• 10:14
  So it's we see it every day, their
• 10:17
  inspiration of never giving up, and so we
• 10:19
  can't ever give up because of what we
• 10:21
  see from our kids.
• 10:23
  Yeah. Yeah. That is all definitely so inspiring.
• 10:26
  And thank you for sharing, those heartfelt stories.
• 10:29
  And you described the race as a transformative
• 10:31
  process that really strips you down and brings
• 10:34
  clarity.
• 10:35
  Could you say what you've learned most about
• 10:37
  yourself and your leadership throughout these past attempts?
• 10:41
  And what do you hope to carry, forward
• 10:43
  this time?
• 10:45
  Yeah. I think, you know,
• 10:48
  what I tell people and they say, like,
• 10:49
  you know, what do you go through? It's
• 10:51
  just about every motion. Right? It's a 100
• 10:53
  miles. It's thirty hours.
• 10:55
  That transformative process. When you're,
• 10:58
  pushing through a 100 miles in the in
• 11:00
  the mountains, I mean,
• 11:02
  so the climbs are incredibly steep.
• 11:04
  The air is incredibly
• 11:06
  thin.
• 11:07
  You're pushing through hours into the night, exhaustion,
• 11:10
  fatigue,
• 11:12
  nausea,
• 11:13
  all of that.
• 11:15
  But what I also tell people is they're
• 11:17
  the other side of it where you have
• 11:19
  this amazing group of people that are supporting
• 11:21
  you. So you have a sense of community.
• 11:23
  You have a sense of gratitude.
• 11:25
  You also have this amazing sense of presence.
• 11:28
  And a lot of people talk about, you
• 11:30
  know, needing to be present. And it's become
• 11:32
  very cliche when people tell you, no. You
• 11:34
  need to be present in the moment.
• 11:36
  When you go through an experience like this,
• 11:38
  that's what you have. You end up with
• 11:40
  this absolute sense of clarity in the moment
• 11:42
  because of what you can only do is
• 11:44
  focus literally on the next step. There becomes
• 11:46
  a point of exhaustion and absolute fatigue
• 11:49
  and where it's no longer
• 11:51
  physical as much as it is mental because
• 11:53
  you're battling this notion of wanting to quit
• 11:56
  and all of the doubts.
• 11:57
  And so it be you're very much in
• 12:00
  that moment of your your only thought is
• 12:03
  of this very next step.
• 12:06
  And I think that is incredibly powerful because
• 12:08
  in in the world that we live today
• 12:10
  with all of the distractions and, like, almost
• 12:12
  a constant level of engagement,
• 12:15
  to have a moment where
• 12:17
  all of that disappears
• 12:19
  and you are literally truly focused on the
• 12:22
  the very next that that moment and the
• 12:25
  very next step,
• 12:27
  it's just wonderful.
• 12:28
  You know? You're suffering,
• 12:31
  but there's also this level of clarity that
• 12:33
  you achieve
• 12:34
  where you really get to see who you
• 12:36
  are
• 12:37
  and what you're made of in these moments
• 12:39
  where it's incredibly
• 12:40
  difficult
• 12:42
  and what it matters to you. And I
• 12:44
  think, you know, back to all of you
• 12:46
  know, connecting this all back to mission and
• 12:49
  what our kid what I see our kids.
• 12:50
  That's what I see from our kids. Right?
• 12:52
  You know, all of those things I talked
• 12:54
  about, suffering and pushing through the dark and
• 12:56
  pushing through doubt, our kids do that every
• 12:58
  day, and they're not just doing it for
• 13:00
  thirty hours. You know? They're doing it for
• 13:03
  months at a time, years at a time.
• 13:05
  And I think, again, that perspective
• 13:08
  of
• 13:09
  knowing
• 13:10
  that
• 13:11
  there's literally
• 13:12
  thousands of inspirational stories of these kids pushing
• 13:16
  and persevering
• 13:17
  and the strength and courage of what they're
• 13:19
  doing and facing and the teams that help
• 13:21
  them do that, you know, that's what I
• 13:23
  think about when I'm out there. And anytime
• 13:25
  the doubt starts to seep in, it's like,
• 13:27
  no. There is no doubt. Right now, there's
• 13:29
  a kid. His name is Daniel, and he's
• 13:32
  22 years old, and he is our hospital.
• 13:34
  And he has sickle cell disease.
• 13:37
  And if you've ever heard or know anything
• 13:39
  about sickle cell disease, you know it's an
• 13:40
  incredibly painful disease,
• 13:43
  when pain episodes are described as, like, shards
• 13:46
  of glass running through your veins. Well, this
• 13:48
  kid has it, but he also has a
• 13:50
  dream to become a pilot.
• 13:52
  And he hasn't let his disease stop him
• 13:54
  from wanting to become a pilot. He has
• 13:56
  completed
• 13:57
  all of the qualifications
• 13:59
  to become a commercial pilot.
• 14:01
  And one of the things that I'm just
• 14:03
  so incredibly proud of him and what we
• 14:05
  do at this hospital is but his sickle
• 14:07
  cell disease is preventing him from becoming a
• 14:09
  pilot because of of the disease and the
• 14:11
  pain episodes.
• 14:12
  But the FAA told him, if you are
• 14:14
  get cured of sickle cell, then you can
• 14:16
  become a pilot. And so he's completed all
• 14:18
  of his requirements. And now here at our
• 14:21
  hospital, we're only one of a handful of
• 14:22
  children's hospitals in the country that now can
• 14:25
  offer a cure for sickle cell disease that
• 14:27
  just happened last year. Medical history was made.
• 14:30
  And Daniel is here at 22,
• 14:32
  and he's gonna be cured of sickle cell
• 14:34
  disease. We're gonna cure him of this horrible
• 14:36
  disease that he has struggled throughout his life
• 14:38
  with, but that hasn't stopped him from wanting
• 14:41
  to become a pilot. And at the end
• 14:43
  of this, he's gonna be cured of sickle
• 14:44
  cell disease and gonna become able to become
• 14:46
  a a pilot, and that's all gonna happen
• 14:48
  here. And, like, those are the stories that
• 14:51
  you think about of kids
• 14:52
  still pushing, having every excuse to not do
• 14:55
  something, and they still push past those excuses.
• 14:57
  They are stronger than their excuses, and they
• 14:59
  push through, and then we're here to help
• 15:01
  them get over that mountain.
• 15:03
  It's just you know?
• 15:05
  I can go on and on with stories
• 15:07
  of inspiration
• 15:08
  and how that's connecting me to
• 15:10
  wanting to make sure I do this and
• 15:12
  not for the finish line, not for a
• 15:15
  medal, but now to share their stories, all
• 15:17
  100 miles, all 100 of our kids, to
• 15:20
  share their amazing stories
• 15:22
  of just what they do and what they
• 15:24
  overcome and their strength. So it's it's pretty
• 15:26
  amazing. I'm blessed to get to do what
• 15:28
  I do every day. I'm blessed to see
• 15:30
  the teams that offer this,
• 15:32
  support,
• 15:33
  incredible care.
• 15:35
  It's just it's amazing. And we live in
• 15:37
  the best city. I say all the time.
• 15:38
  There's no better place in New Orleans and
• 15:39
  no greater cause than Manning Family Children's.
• 15:43
  Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. That's definitely so amazing. And
• 15:46
  thank you, so much for sharing all of
• 15:48
  that. But before I let you go,
• 15:50
  what message do you hope your patients,
• 15:53
  staff, and the broader health care community take
• 15:55
  from this journey?
• 15:56
  You know what's what? The same message that
• 15:59
  our kids tell us every day. Never give
• 16:01
  up.
• 16:02
  Bottom line. Never give up. Keep pushing.
• 16:05
  Be stronger than your excuses. Overcome.
• 16:09
  And it's just that's the main message. You
• 16:12
  don't learn
• 16:13
  anything from quitting.
• 16:15
  And, you know, you finish what you started,
• 16:19
  and you get to the finish line, whatever
• 16:21
  that is, and never give up.
• 16:23
  Our kids' stories are one of overcoming
• 16:27
  positivity,
• 16:28
  of strength, of courage, of resilience,
• 16:31
  and,
• 16:32
  they never ever give up.
• 16:35
  Amazing. Amazing. Thank you so much for those
• 16:37
  final thoughts. It's definitely been a very informative
• 16:40
  discussion. So, again, I wanna thank you so
• 16:41
  much for coming on Beckus HealthCare, especially for
• 16:44
  the first time. And I look forward to
• 16:45
  connecting with you again soon. Great. Thanks so
• 16:48
  much, Mariah.