KMBC 9: Dad shares jokes with team helping tiny heart patients

By Kelly Eckerman

Meet Benjamin Gibson. He's been through a lot his first year of life. Five surgeries so far, now doctors at Children's Mercy are focusing on a heart defect that could require more procedures. But thanks to a monitoring program called CHAMP Benjamin gets to be at home between surgeries. 

"It was kind of eye-opening that wow, he can go home and be viable and just be a little baby and we can be home and you know they're going to be watching over us and they're going to be taking really good care of him," Benjamin's dad said. 

Parents provide daily information like heart rate. It goes straight to the CHAMP medical team along with a brief video. 

Ryan, a first-time dad in the middle of a pandemic dealing with all these health issues decided it was time for some levity during daily checks. He started throwing in dad jokes.

"Not only is it a bright spot for us, but it brought joy to the entire heart center," Melissa Elliott, CHAMP Nurse Practitioner said. 

See the whole story via KMBC

Learn more about CHAMP at Children's Mercy