intro: Welcome to Pediatric Voices, Duke Children's podcast about kids healthcare. Now here's our host, Dr. Richard Chung.

Richard Chung, MD (Host): Hello and welcome to Pediatric Voices, expert insights about timely topics in children's health, brought to you by Duke Children's Hospital and the Department of Pediatrics at the Duke University Medical Center. My name is Dr. Richard Chung, a physician at Duke Children's and a co-host of this show.

 Today, we will discuss the amazing partnership between Duke Children's and Duke Men's Basketball. This longstanding partnership has been essential in supporting the care of so many children and youth here at Duke over the years. To help us understand more about this partnership, I'll be speaking with KC Nelson and Marcelle Scheyer. KC serves as the Chair of the Duke Children's National Leadership Council and is on the Duke School of Medicine Board of Visitors. In his day job, he is the Chief Investment Officer of Hamilton Point Investment Advisors. Marcelle is a family nurse practitioner who graduated from the Duke University School of Nursing and has worked in critical care, women's health and clinical research settings. She's also the mother of three young children. And with her other half, Coach Jon Scheyer of Duke Men's Basketball, she's been an incredible supporter and advocate for Duke Children's over the years. KC and Marcelle, welcome to the show.

Marcelle Scheyer, MSN: Thank you so much for having us.

Host: Why don't we start in with each of your individual stories? I'd love to really understand, well, how and why you got interested in children's health generally, and then in particular, working with Duke Children's specifically. KC, let's start with you. Do you want to share a little bit with our listeners about the story of how you got involved in this work?

K.C. Nelson: Sure thing, Richard. Eighteen years ago, my wife and I had our firstborn, Ben. My wife had a totally normal pregnancy, and he was one of a handful of kids every year that sustained serious brain bleed at birth, an unexplained brain bleed. So, most hemorrhages are caused by traumatic events at birth, or there are bleeding disorders that run in the family, or the baby is born prematurely. And our son didn't check any of those boxes. So unfortunately, he had a massive hemorrhage and his outlook very early on was quite grim, initially they didn't know if he was going to be able to survive. And then, once they were able to stabilize him, they thought he was going to survive, but they didn't think he would be able to communicate verbally or walk later in life. And we were being cared for at the UNC NICU, there was a wonderful doctor there, once they had Ben stabilized. They said, "You know, if it was my child, there's a doctor by the name of Fuchs at Duke, that I would see if he could take a look."

We were fortunate enough to get an appointment with Dr. Fuchs. And Dr. Fuchs said that he, in fact, did have a serious hemorrhage and he had hydrocephalus, which is a collection of, you know, they call it water on the brain, pooling of cerebrospinal fluid, that causes the head to swell and causes all sorts of problems. Then, he needed immediate care. But Dr. Fuchs was going on vacation the next day. So, he asked if we could bring him in really early the next morning and he could operate. So, we did that when Ben was three weeks old and down to six pounds at that point. So, he had brain surgery at 21 days old and he had a shunt put in that relieved pressure in his brain. And Dr. Fuchs said, "I think he's going to do pretty well. Babies are awfully darn tough." And so, with older children and adults, you know, you'll definitely sustain long-term problems. But with babies, sometimes different parts of their brain can learn to do different functions, once they've sustained an injury. And so sure enough, our son is a senior in high school, and he's Chapel Hill, straight A student, lived a perfectly normal life, plays sports, has really no side effects from the whole ordeal other than he has a VP shunt that's with him for life every once in a while and that those units do need to be replaced. But outside of that, really no long term damage.

So long winded story, but that's how we came to Duke and, you know, we really feel like Duke saved our son's life and our family's life. And we've been indebted ever since and trying to do as much good, give back as much as we could since then.

Host: Thank you for sharing that, KC. That is such a meaningful story to hear about how your family was experiencing a healthy pregnancy. And then all of a sudden, things were flipped on their side to have this really serious issue arise and that initially negative prognosis must have been really devastating and to then have this opportunity to work with Dr. Fuchs and the neurosurgery team and to be cared for through Duke Children's and to have this really dramatic positive change in terms of that outlook and now to have your son, your eldest son, your first kid...

K.C. Nelson: That's right. Yeah.

Host: Now a senior in high school, that's just remarkable.

K.C. Nelson: Tough intro to parenting, but it does quickly put things into perspective. And yeah, you said team, which is very much how we look at it. Everyone from Dr. Fuchs himself to the residents that help them in the room, to the nurses that care for him and still do along the way, you know, if he's having a problem with his head, you know we call in, check out, to the service team that comes in and cleans up the room at night and talks to you, it's such a large group of people that take good care of you and that led to this wonderful outcome that we oftentimes, you know, wonder how this would have played out if all the dominoes wouldn't have fallen into place, to speak.

Host: Sure. Thank you for again sharing that story. And we'll kind of get to how things progressed after that, you having that positive experience and then figuring out what can we do to really help other families to have similar, really positive experiences through Duke Children's. But before we get there, Marcelle, I did want to invite you into the conversation. I would love to hear your story as well. I know that you and Coach Jon-- I don't know, am I supposed to call him Coach Jon or can I just call him Jon? I don't know how formal to be, but I'd love to just hear how you both got involved in working with Duke Children's.

Marcelle Scheyer, MSN: Yes, definitely. Well, first, Dr. Chung, thank you for having me. And KC, thank you, and hearing your story is just so impactful and moving and it really is such a special place at Children's. And I feel lucky to be even a small part of it. So, Duke Men's Basketball has had this incredible relationship with Duke Children's for years with Coach K and their family being involved and having a partnership, a very strong partnership. I was able to see that in the last 10 years of being here with Jon as an assistant coach, but his relationship started when he was a player here at Duke. And in his time playing, they would visit children at the Children's Hospital around the holidays, and they would have different events, and it really made a lasting impact on Jon and the impact that the children made on him truly lasted. And he has stories about kids that he met and still remembers their face, their names, their stories, and it really stuck with him. Jon also is a family guy, always wanted to have children. And we are lucky enough to have our own family. Now, we have three young children. And we've had opportunity, I want to say opportunity, to be patients at Children's Hospital. Two of our children have had surgeries there over the past few years, and it is just truly a special place and we feel lucky to be a part of it and to continue the relationship with Duke Men's Basketball and the children's Hospital.

Host: Thank you for sharing that, Marcelle. And referencing the really legacy that Coach K and his family have set up in terms of this really strong partnership is great. And knowing that you and Jon, Jon as a player initially and then, as a sort of rising up the ranks of the coaching hierarchy now as head coach, you and he collaboratively really pushing it forward and really even increasing that involvement has been really wonderful to see.

And I love that you mentioned, the lasting impacts on Jon as a player, doing that engagement with Duke Children's many years ago and how much that really impacted him. I know as a clinician myself, whenever we see the players come through the hospital, it's always really a positive environment. You know, the kids are just so thrilled to see their sports heroes come in, spend time with them, really elevate them in the midst of their illness, right? This really scary experience of a hospitalization to have, essentially, the equivalent of a superhero come in and really spend time is invaluable and so meaningful. And then to know that, that young person, that 18 or 19-year-old player who's still young in their own right is being impacted in such meaningful ways. It's really wonderful to hear that.

Marcelle Scheyer, MSN: Yes, absolutely. And I say that all the time that as much as these children feel impacted, we are impacted way more. The bravery, the courage these kids show, it goes both ways, and our players can learn so much from these children.

Host: That's really wonderful. KC, I wanted to follow up on your story. Now, I imagine that if we polled a hundred people and asked them, "Is children's health important?" My guess is all of them would say yes, right? But only a small percentage of them take that belief and translate it into action. And so, how did that happen for you? You went through this really important experience as a family, and you expressed gratitude to Dr. Fuchs and others. But then, why did you bring it even further and proceed over these many years of direct involvement with Duke Children's?

K.C. Nelson: Yeah, I guess there were steps along the way. So, initially, the whole experience was just so traumatic and the outcomes were very unknown, how our son would do for the first couple of years after. Our thanks was almost from afar in that, you know, I write emails, we express it on the phone and, you know, bring in donuts every once in a while for the staff. And we started donating to every radiothon, which is an event that Duke Children's does in concert with MIX 101.5 WRAL around the holiday season every year, where they do a fundraiser. So, we started donating through that.

And as time went on, my wife and I started to ask, "Well, what else could we do?" And the National Leadership Council is a group of about 16 individuals. It's an external board, so to speak, that serves a few purposes for Duke Children's. One is that we're all donors to the hospital. And secondly, we're all ambassadors for the hospital. So, at the various events we're at, we'll raise awareness to our audience about what's going on at Duke Children's, and just bring awareness generally to various causes that the hospital is pursuing.

Lastly, we serve as connectors. In this capacity, we're trying to use our networks to bring in new individuals or businesses or non-profit relationships to Duke Children that can help with some form of maybe it's raising money for the hospital; maybe it's if the hospital is trying to find new doctors and nurses, it's using our networks there to try to help make those connections happen; corporate partnerships, again, where we can raise awareness, raise money, so really try to serve as connectors.

And after serving on the Leadership Council for a few years, I was asked to chair it. And, you know, it's really being a part of the leadership council. I think, when I look back at my body of work one day, hopefully many, many years from now, this is really going to be one that I'm particularly proud of. And that there's just so much that you can accomplish, even though the task might look so large and daunting, simply by just giving some effort. And people have a tendency to think, "Well, all I can do is donate and then if I don't have the financial resources, then what can I really do?" But there's really so many different ways that people can help out.

One easy thing that folks could do, they were trying to increase our social media presence, right? So, follow Duke Children's on Instagram and Facebook. That's easy enough, right? And when you see some compelling stories or a neat campaign that we're pursuing, you know, share it or like it. So, it's been a terrific experience. The people I've gotten to know along the way. And some of the projects we've pursued have really been impactful and it's something I really enjoy. It's been very special.

Host: Thank you, KC, for sharing all of that. Really helpful to hear how you kind of progressed over time in terms of your degree of involvement. And shout out to those kind emails and the donuts from the early days. Those actually can go a long way on a busy day in clinic or in the hospital. So, whatever your contribution, however small it may seem, if it is positive and supportive of the work of caring for kids, it's definitely appreciated. And so, thank you for that message.

I do want to highlight a few events that mark the calendar of this partnership between Duke Children's and Duke Men's Basketball. And Marcelle, I might start with you. There's many events that happen, which are really wonderful leading up to the season, through the season, even beyond, are there any particular events that you really look forward to and enjoy that you want our listeners to know about?

Marcelle Scheyer, MSN: Absolutely. And the timing of this is perfect because we have a big event. It's our second annual Dribble for Victory over Cancer coming up this Saturday, October 7th, that we are so excited about. But the Duke Men's Basketball Program is teaming up with the Pediatric Research Foundation and the V Foundation for Cancer Research and Duke Children's. And the event is to raise money for these amazing foundations. And our team will be dribbling around campus. It's a mile route around Duke campus, and we are going to have team captains from Duke Children's that are incredible children going through treatment currently, and they are going to lead us in an amazing dribble around Duke campus for an awesome day. So, that is one event that we are very excited about.

Host: That's really great, Marcelle. Thank you for sharing about that. And it's a really fun thing. I remember even last year seeing all the pictures and videos on social media of these kid captains, these children leading the team around campus. What a fun idea to really raise awareness and support. And what about you, KC? Are there any other events that you would like to highlight?

K.C. Nelson: Yeah. Just a few days later, there'll be the closed practice that people can buy tickets to. That's a great opportunity to get to see the team up close. It's their first time playing in front of kind of an external audience, so to speak. All funds there go towards Duke Children's and Coach Scheyer speaks to the crowd and tells them a little bit about what the team's working on and some areas that they've been excelling in and some other areas that needs some extra work. So, it's good to hear insights from the coach. You'll get to see the players interacting with some of the children's patients from Duke Children's. So, that's really neat. So, that's a great event.

The season's going to start November 1st, and that means that the Charity Strike Challenge will start, that'll be entering it's third year. We've raised over $100,000 in of the first two seasons. That's a season-long event where people can donate either a one-time donation or make a pledge per free throw made by the Duke men's team throughout the season. So, you can pledge as little as, you know, 10 cents a free throw for all the free throws hit throughout the year. We have celebrity shooters that come out at halftime of the home games. For those who've been in person to Cameron over the last couple seasons, you've probably recognized JJ Reddick. Grayson Allen, Shane Battier, some former Duke players, Coach Elko. People affiliated with Duke will come on and shoot a free throw at halftime for $10,000 to the Children's Hospital. So, that's something that's going to be going on that's always good.

Let's see, the Scheyer Kid Captain program is something neat that Marcelle and Jon introduced last year. That was very popular, a crowd favorite, so that'll be back. Then, we have the Watch Party later in the year. I believe it's February this year, where Duke plays at UNC. We'll be having a watch party at Scharf Hall, I believe, where people can buy tickets, too. That was a fantastic time last year. Of course, the outcome didn't hurt. Kind of provided for some extra excitement, but it was a great time where we raffled off a lot of different Duke swag and all sorts of merchandise from around the program that is well received. So, all sorts of events coming.

Host: Great. Thank you, KC, for walking through some of these highlights. But again, you can always get involved with these events or in between. Now, KC, you sort of started in on this. But I'd love to hear you, Marcelle, if you're talking to a friend, let's say, or just pitching an audience to get involved, to really support the work of Duke Children's, how would you say it? What's your pitch to our listeners to kind of get involved even in little ways or bigger ways?

Marcelle Scheyer, MSN: Just as KC was saying too, you know, I think a lot of people don't know how to help or want to help but aren't sure and if you don't have the financial means to donate, there's still so much that you can do and every little bit helps. You know, with raising children, you say it takes a village, well, it takes an even bigger village to help children who are battling chronic illnesses and their families, because it's not just the children, it's children's families, it's our community. So, I always tell my children too, you can change the world by just changing one person's day. So if it's just something little, showing up, liking something on Instagram, whatever it is, there are so many opportunities and ways and the people that make up Children's Hospital are so willing to help lead you and help make it possible. So just reach out, I'm here, reach out to me, and anything I can do to help to get more people involved, this community, we can do so much.

K.C. Nelson: We'll have a variety of events, Richard, like the dribble for victory. You can show up and just clap the team on, as well as the patients. There'll be plenty of players and patients at an event like that. Similarly, like radiothon's going to be coming up this holiday season, that's an event where you can call in and give a dollar and a shout out, or just turn your radio on and increase the audience. The bigger the numbers are, the bigger the argument we can make to our corporate partners that they should be giving more, right?

So, there's simple ways like that in addition to, you know, if you want to really get involved and buy tickets to the closed practice or to the watch party or donate to Charity Strike, all those things are good things that'll help us out. Like Marcelle said, it takes a village and I tell folks all the time, there's a number of leadership councils throughout Duke Medical system that are doing similar things to Duke Children's leadership councils.

But what I've found interesting coming to, I guess, know the inner workings a little bit over the last few years is that a lot of times, those clinics, whether it be the heart clinic or the eye clinic, or the cancer clinic, they're helping adults. Occasionally if you help enough adults, chances are some of those adults are going to be rather wealthy folks, and they will drop a very large donation as a thank you for Duke saving their life. And Duke Children's, it doesn't really work like that. We're saving plenty of lives as we talked about today, but our patients are very young, right? They don't have any financial resources. And the patient's parents, oftentimes, they are quite young and don't have a lot in the way of financial resources either. And so, it takes a lot of small donations to make everything run. And so, a lot of our success is based on these small donations and people sharing what's going on to try to loop others in.

So, this concept of connecting is something that we're really trying to hammer home with those who want to be involved. If you don't have financial resources, or even if you do and you've made a donation, that's awesome. You know, can you help connect us with someone in your company that may be interested in a corporate partnership and helping to co-sponsor one of our events, like hosting a matching hour or sponsoring a matching hour for radiothon, something like that, all sorts of ways that companies can get involved. So if you can make that connection, please do so and reach out to Children's. Our development department is outstanding and can help you even brainstorm different ways that you can help make that stuff happen.

Marcelle Scheyer, MSN: And I want to add one thing to that is Duke Children's is also so involved in medical research for pediatric patients. And like to say it's like the mecca of clinical research. And by supporting Duke Children's and donating to Duke Children's, you are supporting the research, which truly we have seen the direct impact on these children's lives that are enrolled in these clinical trials and decreasing side effects and allowing them to live these full lives. So, it's not just to the hospital, it's to the future of medicine for our children. So, that's my pitch right there.

Host: Great point, Marcelle. Really kind of supporting not only the care today, but setting us up for the future. And I know you have a background in research yourself and feel really passionately about the importance of that really forefront of medicine. And thank you, KC, just for, again, mentioning for our listeners how important it is for so many people to do their parts, small and big, because it really does take that village.

Thank you to both of you just for sharing all the many ways in which you've partnered with Duke Children's through the Duke Men's Basketball Program and inviting our listeners to do the same. Certainly if people want to check out more information, there is a website giving.dukechildrens.org as well as social media platforms. As KC mentioned earlier, we're on Facebook, Instagram, and also the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Now, I would be remiss as a diehard basketball fan if we didn't close this conversation out with a little bit more conversation about basketball itself. Now, Marcelle, I've heard at least that you have interesting game day routines. As the wind beneath Coach Jon Scheyer's wings, what do you do on game days?

Marcelle Scheyer, MSN: Well, I don't know about routine because, you know, we're still falling into our routine. With our family being so young, last year, our youngest was pretty much an infant, newborn, the start of our season last year, so that changed some things for me. But I am this team's biggest fan, I'm at every game and thereafter. You know, I always have to re-watch the game after because my emotions are so high during the game, I can enjoy it more, I could say. But, yes, it's been definitely an exciting and thrilling ride thus far, and we are very excited for this year.

Host: Excellent.

K.C. Nelson: Marcelle's being too modest in that anybody who's been at the games sees Marcelle before the games. Oftentimes, you know, saying hi to the fans, and student sections and the players as they get ready to play. And then, this partnership with Duke Basketball and Duke Children's is so strong that there's an event basically every night. So at Charity Strike, which is typically at halftime, sometimes before games, you know, Marcelle is with the patient families, walking them there out on the court, talking to them.

And, you know, I shared this with Marcelle a couple of weeks ago, but she actually had my vote for favorite moment of the year last year of the season in that Marcelle presents the Scheyer Kid captain at halftime, which I believe last year there were five of them that came out. I remember one at the Pitt game, which was a particularly rough first half, duke was down by 11. The team had played, I think everyone would agree, pretty poorly. It was pretty ugly and there was zero energy in Cameron. There were actually some groans, which you don't hear too often, probably count on one hand the number of times that's happened in the last 20 years I've been going to games. And Pitt ended the first half on like 11-0 run or something.

So, we're down at halftime and it's dead quiet and Marcelle comes out with the kid captain for the night, who I believe was a young man by the name of James who had just finished cancer treatment, I think, and gotten clear scans. The crowd, after she presents him and the announcer tells James' story, starts with the student section and the crowd, standing ovation, just starts going nuts. And the team takes the floor 10 minutes later. The crowd was electric the entire second half. Duke went on fire, ended up winning the game, I don't know, 10 or 15 points. And always credit that game to Marcelle and particularly James and his family. So, some really neat moments, I think, between Duke Children's and Duke Basketball. Marcelle has been a big part of that.

Marcelle Scheyer, MSN: Thank you, KC. And that, I have to agree, that was an incredible environment, incredible game. Again, talking about everyone making a difference. I think bringing James out and the reaction of, especially our diehard Cameron Crazies, they started chanting his name and made the experience not only for him, but for everybody in Cameron just so memorable and electric is the word and it carried, and it carried the team and we got a victory and it was an incredible night in Cameron.

K.C. Nelson: I often wonder, does Jon get to see any of that halftime footage, Marcelle?

Marcelle Scheyer, MSN: So actually, I believe it was during a timeout. And he's pretty dialed in, I'd say, during the timeouts, but I'll tell you that he did feel it. He feels the crowds and everybody behind the team, so absolutely.

Host: Excellent. Thank you, KC and Marcelle, for sharing in that story. What a perfect story to kind of end us on. A really great example of this partnership, literally between Duke Men's Basketball and Duke Children's and the kid's captain that day really playing such a key role for the victory on the court and then the players in the program day after day, year after year, contributing their part to the victories in the hospital. And so, thank you for really bringing that to the floor and for all of your sharing today on today's episode.

Marcelle Scheyer, MSN: Thank you Richard for having us and for giving us the platform to share.

K.C. Nelson: Thank you very much, Richard. I really appreciate your time today and your energy and efforts that you've devoted to this podcast.

Host: Excellent. I really enjoyed this conversation. Pediatric Voices is produced by the team at DoctorPodcasting. The show has been developed by my co-host, Dr. Angelo Milazzo, and me. Thanks to Dr. Ann Reed and the administrative team at Duke Children's, particularly Debbie Taylor and Courtney Sparrow for their support. Find our show and hit the subscribe button wherever you find your podcasts. And we want to hear from you. You can connect with us at dukechildrens.org, Facebook, X, Instagram. Please send us your feedback about the show, including your suggestions for future topics. Thanks for being a part of the show. I look forward to talking with you again.