Biomed Overcomes Tough Life To Find Calling
In a hospital in South Bend, IN, Demetrius Dillard was comforting his mother, waiting to hear if she had cancer when his life changed forever. Suddenly, the alarm on his mother’s intravenous pump went off and wouldn’t stop, adding more tension to an already trying time.
“The nurse had to call in a healthcare technology management (HTM) professional, and he walked right up, pushed a few buttons, and fixed it,” said Dillard. “The nurse said, ‘I love these guys.’”
In the end, Dillard and his family were relieved to know that his mother, Pamela Elie, did not have cancer. But that moment proved pivotal anyway because Dillard, who was 18 at the time, remembers being instantly fascinated. “That was an ‘aha’ moment, where I felt like someone cared about my problem no matter how big or small,” he said.
He asked the man questions about training and qualifications for the job. Dillard recalls being impressed with how the professional was able to address the issue and make everybody in the room feel better. That was not a feeling that Dillard had in his own job working as a drafter in an architectural firm.
“The HTM professional let me shadow him for a day, and from there I felt I could do so much more being a biomed or clinical engineer because I am directly affecting patient care, which allows other people to get better,” he said.
Dillard had found his calling, and 10 years later he was recognized with the profession’s highest honor when he received the 2012 AAMI/GE Healthcare BMET of the Year Award. He now works as an equipment interface specialist for Community Health Network in Indianapolis, IN, integrating devices with electronic health record (EHR) systems.
He mentors future biomeds by teaching at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, where Dillard, 28, received his own degree in biomedical equipment technology.
“When I see that ‘aha’ moment when someone understands a concept or a way to better themselves, that makes me feel good,” he said. Dillard also mentors inner-city youths, and helps to turn their lives around. He said that his message carries resonance because of his own background. “These kids understand that I have been in their shoes,” he said.
Dillard grew up in the inner city of South Bend with his mother and two older sisters. His father was a truck driver and not around that much, and an older brother had left too. “Times were hard,” Dillard recalled. “My mother was on welfare. We made the best of it.”
When Dillard was 7, he said he was already frequently in trouble. “I was faced with situations where drugs and violence were prevalent,” he said.
One day he and some friends went to the train tracks for one of their favorite games. “We would run alongside the train as it started up, jump to grab a ladder and then hang on for a couple of seconds and jump off,” Dillard said.
But this time, when Dillard jumped onto the ladder his foot slipped off and his legs fell under the moving train. “It severed the front quarter of my right foot and tore the toes off my left foot,” he said. “They were only able to save four of the toes on my left foot, and had to amputate further on the right one. I have a prosthetic right foot.”
Dillard was sent to a hospital in Chicago to recuperate. Isolated from his family and friends, he reflected on the choices he had made.
“Being an inner-city kid in a single-family home, you get faced with situations that cause you to grow up a lot faster,” he said.
Dillard decided then and there to get his act together. “I attribute my accident to some kind of a divine intervention because I was going down a dark path,” he said.
‘Tip of the Iceberg’
Dillard joined Community Health about five months ago, and has enjoyed his job ever since. It requires Dillard to wear three hats. He has to understand things from the HTM side, information technology side, and teach it to the clinical staff.
“I like to teach and learn at the same time, so I am really comfortable,” he said. “A lot of people really don’t know or have not been exposed to an integration process before.”
Dillard said he can see more positions that focus on device integration cropping up in the HTM field.
“I would say it is the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “It means that we can show our value and how much we benefit healthcare as a whole.”
SOURCE:AAMI News: September 2012, Vol. 47, No. 9
