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