Maggie McKay (Host): It's always good to get to know the person behind the doctor. So we're excited to get to know Dr. Laurel Metzler, a Critical Care Medicine Physician at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. Welcome to the Peds Pod by Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. I'm your host, Maggie McKay. Welcome Dr. Metzler. We're so happy to have you here. Would you please introduce yourself?

Laurel Metzler, MD: Hi, I'm so glad to be here, Maggie. I'm Dr. Laurel Metzler. I usually tell people just to call me Dr. Laurel. I'm a Pediatric Intensivist here at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, and I have been here for the last, now this is my seventh year being an attending, in the PICU at Le Bonheur.

Host: Nice. So why did you choose to go into medicine, first of all?

Laurel Metzler, MD: Medicine has been something that I have always thought that I was going to do. In first grade, when they were like, what do you want to be when you grow up? My answer was doctor from the very beginning. I come from a family of educators and plumbers, so a little bit different path than the rest of my family, but it's always been medicine and pretty much always pediatrics for me as well.

Host: And what inspired you to choose critical care medicine?

Laurel Metzler, MD: Oh, there are so, so many reasons why. I think the biggest things are that we get to see all kinds of patients and families and disease processes that are just really fun for the nerdy side of me, to take care of. But then also, there's something about what we do on a daily basis as we are walking some difficult journeys with our families.

That, that relationship that we develop very quickly, asking a family to trust us that we are giving the best care that is possible for their child while they're, it's one of the family's, like, worst days of their life, if not the worst day, and having the honor to be able to do that for them, with them, is super, it's just amazing and there aren't words that can describe it. So those are the two big, big reasons is exciting physiology and then just really intimate relationships with families that I may not get in other fields.

Host: So, you said in first grade, you knew you wanted to be a doctor. Before that, was there ever any other consideration as far as a career path?

Laurel Metzler, MD: I think I probably had some of the like, oh, I want to be a marine biologist. I feel like there was probably that somewhere in there, maybe a veterinarian, something always science y, and something where I'm caring for and building on the knowledge that exists about a certain topic.

Host: What was your very first job? Not necessarily in medicine, but like when you were a teenager?

Laurel Metzler, MD: Yeah, well, going back to before I was a teenager, I actually, my very first job was for my family's plumbing business. We got paid, my sisters and I, got paid a penny per nut and bolt that we would put, or nut and wait, uh, I forget what the little circular thing is that you would put on a bolt.

So we'd put those together so they could be stocked in the plumbing company' s trucks for their journeys. So I did that and some filing paperwork, for our family's company, probably starting much younger than what the law says that you can work. Uh, so that was my very first job, but then my very first legal job where I got an actual work permit, I, kind of continued with the nuts and bolts theme and worked at Ace Hardware.

Host: I love it. I love it. How fun. A penny, a nut and bolt. That's a riot. So Dr. Metzler, who inspires you?

Laurel Metzler, MD: There are so many people, but I would say, probably the most nearest and dearest to my heart inspiration, person that inspires me is my grandpa, who with nothing but a past a high school education, really built a like a business empire. He built the plumbing business. He owned a lot of houses, but he always stated how much he regretted not going on to get more education, and told us from a very young age that education was the key to unlocking everything that we wanted to do with life.

And just that mentality of, I got a lot of my work ethic, facing challenges or love for facing challenges, and that wanting to go to the next step in education and get more training and be as much of an expert as I can be, I got that from him.

Host: So I imagine your job is very intense. How do you deal with stress? Any hobbies or sports that help alleviate the demands?

Laurel Metzler, MD: Yeah. So I'm a big fan of unwinding on my Peloton bike. I do a lot of riding on that. When I can make it to the gym to do some weight lifting, I can get a lot of pent up feelings out during that. On my drive home after a particularly hard day, just, listening to an audiobook while I'm driving home to kind of decompress and get my brain off of what has just happened.

 I like being outdoors, camping, hiking, and then creating stuff in the kitchen, particularly, like, cooking with my fiancé and baking are kind of my go to things, ways to relax.

Host: Nice. I agree on the baking for sure. And being outdoors. That always helps, right? They even say if you see greenery for 10 minutes a day, you're going to be in a better mood than someone who doesn't. If you were not a physician, what would you be?

Laurel Metzler, MD: The last time I was asked this question was actually in my med school interview, and I feel like I didn't answer it correctly. It was some form of a question, and they were like, if you didn't get into med school, what would you do? And I think in talking to people afterwards, they're like, Oh, Laurel, you did not answer that right. They meant like to make your application better. Because I was like, you know what? I would go to culinary school and I would probably get some like nutrition classes, and potentially some degree in nutrition and having a healthy lifestyle through nutrition. So I think I would be big on the nutrition side of things and cooking to better your health.

 Although recently I would say the running joke has been when we're having a rough day that I want to go open a boutique store that's a coffee shop, plant store, and then like various other little things, has kind of been the recent thing that we would, I would do if I wasn't a doctor.

Host: That sounds fun too. Is there any one story or person that stands out in your memory from your career so far that reminds you why you do what you do?

Laurel Metzler, MD: There are a lot every day. I feel like here at Le Bonheur, there are people who are going above and beyond what their basic job requirements are to do what's best for the children, and for our families. I think if I were to pick some kind of a theme to things that really stick out in my brain.

One of the things that I do as part of my job as an intensivist is that I am the physician chair for our CHEER team, which stands for Collaborating to Help Everyone Effectively Recover. It is our way of kind of changing this idea that sick kids need to be sedated and left alone and that even our intubated kids, or our kids who are on medications to support their blood pressures, there's things that we can be doing even on hospital day one or two to help with their recovery down the road.

In that realm, we've really made some progress in kind of changing how our unit, our ICU, both the PICU, the step down unit, the IMCU, and the CVICU, how we are thinking about things that we can do for our patient as far as the patient with a breathing tube. We can get them out of bed into a chair, or we can help them walk around the room a little bit.

And with that change, we've gone as extreme as mobilizing some of our patients on ECMO, which is a form of support that's like what you hear about with cardiac bypass, but it's, you can be on it for days on end. To be able to mobilize these patients, to get them out of bed takes a huge amount of effort from everyone involved. And we will have, we'll coordinate with multiple of our rehab therapists. So we have at least one, but usually two physical therapists and an occupational therapist who come. If a patient's on ECMO, they have their own specialist at the bedside already who's watching the ECMO pump, but we oftentimes pull in one or two of our other ECMO people that will come over, the bedside nurse, the charge nurse, myself and other physicians.

We all come together around this patient and their families, usually they're talking to them, we can get Child Life will be in there, we'll have music therapy, all of this to be able to take a kid who's on the highest level of support that we can provide in the unit, to get them to do things like sitting up on the edge of the bed or moving over to, we call it a tilt table where they're able to almost stand up and be weight bearing and then do some of their rehab activities with the therapist.

And it's just amazing. Every time I see us doing it, I want to cry because it just, so many people are coming together to do this thing and we don't just do it once. We make a plan to do it, let's see if we can make this happen every other day this week. And it's just, we have to really think outside the box to make it happen sometimes, but it's so inspiring to see people doing that and like going above and beyond what our job requires us to do, to do what's best for the patient.

Host: That is inspiring to say the least. I can see why you're so passionate about it. Is that kind of a program unique to Le Bonheur?

Laurel Metzler, MD: It's not unique to Le Bonheur. CHEER is our name for it. A lot of different children's hospitals have some sort of team that has been inspired by the ICU liberation idea kind of started in the adults and has trickled down into the pediatric world. So lots of hospitals do it; as to what degree they do it to, and what it looks like is probably is gonna be different from hospital to hospital.

Our team, has a lot of multidisciplinary involvement. I'm the only actual physician on the team. Most of what we do is led by our therapist and our child life specialist.

Host: What is the most rewarding thing about working at Le Bonheur? What makes it special?

Laurel Metzler, MD: The people. The people are amazing. I'm not from the Memphis area originally. I, I grew up in Indiana, did medical school in Indiana, and came down here originally for residency. So I did my general pediatric residency here and just really fell in love with the people here as far as the doctors who are helping to teach me, but also providing this amazing care to our patients, but our nurses, our respiratory therapists, our pharmacists, our EVS people. Anyone that you encounter, you can tell that they are here to serve the children, the community of Memphis and the larger area that we serve.

I went away for fellowship training, back up north. but then when I started looking for jobs, this was the first place I thought of because I wanted to be back in this hospital with these people and serving this community.

Host: I love it. That's, it sounds ideal as far as a hospital to work in. We mentioned, we talked about your grandfather's advice to you, but, professionally, what's the best advice a mentor or other peer at the hospital gave you and why did it stick? Maybe when you started?

Laurel Metzler, MD: To never go down alone, that we are a team caring for patients and I don't have to feel like I'm doing this by myself, that there's always someone else that I can turn to, to ask for advice, and that I shouldn't be afraid to ask for help or for advice, because there are things that we take care of that you only see once or twice in your medical career, and we all want to do what's best. And so it's not, it's not bad to ask for help when you need it.

Host: That's good advice. Do you have any pets, Dr. Metzler?

Laurel Metzler, MD: I do. I have two dogs. One is Cranberry, who's like seven years old. We call her our Memphis Mutt. She's like, she got, we got her from the Humane Society here in Memphis. She looks like she probably has some shepherd mix in her. And then we have Lottie who's a ginormous long haired German shepherd that we got probably about three years ago.

She's my baby that I got when my daughter was a senior in high school, and so since my daughter was going to be leaving me, I got a new baby. So Lottie is, my big baby, and then we also have Jasper Purrkins, who's our kitty cat at home. The Purrkins, yes, yeah, Purrkins, I can't roll my R's to be like Perkins, but then I'm a grandma to a Corgi, uh, named Scooter.

Host: Wow. Okay. That's a lot of fun, but that makes, that makes a house a home. That's fun. So when it comes to TV or streaming, if you even have time, do you have a guilty pleasure, a series you love? Like, I don't know, Bravo Housewives or Bachelor or whatever.

Laurel Metzler, MD: I'm more of the magical mystery kind of world type of girl. I am a huge, like, Harry Potter fan. I probably I have lost track of how many times I have watched the Harry Potter movies. When I'm post call, I usually will go home and put one of those on to fall asleep to. I probably watch, like, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies, two to three times a year as well.

So kind of those like fantasy, mystery, fiction things.

Host: Have you visited Universal Studios Hollywood yet? Because

Laurel Metzler, MD: Yes, I have.

Host: Have you been to the Harry Potter area?

Laurel Metzler, MD: I I have. Yes. That's so that's actually where we were. It is so good. We were there earlier in the year for my birthday celebration. It was my fiance's first time going. He's not the biggest Harry Potter fan, but in the several years that I have been with him, he is, Hey guys, like, willingly we'll watch the movies and sometimes suggest them as well. So we're very excited for the, for 2026 when the new park, will open there.

Host: That's a good husband. Hang on to him. I watch Harry Potter with you over and over, that's a good guy.

Laurel Metzler, MD: Yep, yep.

Host: Dr. Metzler, what's your life philosophy or mantra?

Laurel Metzler, MD: Huh, I don't know that. Never go down alone again, I guess. Uh, I mean, really, it's, we're a team. Everything that I do in my life, I feel like I, it's a team approach to it. So whether it's taking care of really sick kids in the ICU or cooking dinner at home with my fiance, like, we're doing it together. And that, just ask, like, asking for help is not bad thing. I would also say probably everyone needs a therapist is also a life mantra I have. I think everyone should talk to people about their feelings and emotions on a regular basis, at least at some point in your life.

Host: Right. Anything in closing that maybe most people don't know about you that you'd like to share? Like, you're a tap dancer, or, you know.

Laurel Metzler, MD: So every time I get asked the like, what's the thing that if you were to tell people something about you and they wouldn't believe it, what would that be? And I think mine is, is that I have been in a car accident with a train and survived.

Host: Wow. That's big. Wow.

Laurel Metzler, MD: My daughter reminds me all the time when I'm like, what's something unique about me? She's like, mom, you were in an accident with a train and you were fine.

Host: Oh my goodness, that is crazy. Well, that's a note to end on. Thank you so much. This has been so much fun. Thank you for sharing and being so open. It was great to get to know you.

Laurel Metzler, MD: It was great being here. Thank you so much, Maggie.

Host: For more information on Dr. Metzler and Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, please visit lebonheur.org and listen to Le Bonheur's full library of podcasts at lebonheur.org/podcast. I'm Maggie McKay. Thanks for listening.