Two sales reps, a clinical support specialist, multiple project managers, and two distribution centers joined efforts to help save one critically ill baby.
Physicians at Hospital Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona were desperate for a PBS-200 (Park Blade Septostomy Catheter) to enlarge a baby’s Atrial Septal Defect. Cook Medical is the only company that produces this device. At that moment, the PBS-200 was a nonstock item at the European Union Distribution Center (EUDC) and would take 6-8 weeks to produce. But there was no time. The baby had to be treated quickly, and, to make matters worse, it was just before a long holiday weekend.
Susana Clavel, the hospital’s sales rep, immediately called her clinical support specialist, Jose Pastor, for help. “The situation was very serious,” Jose said. “The physicians were convinced that if they couldn’t treat endovascular first, the child would die.”
Jose quickly reached out to Søren Frisk, senior product manager at William Cook Europe, who then contacted the EUDC as well as U.S. product managers, Faith Glandon and Andrew O’Connell. The U.S. product managers quickly checked stock availability with the North American Distribution Center (NADC).
They discovered the NADC had the device in stock, and, one day later, it was on its way to the EUDC in Germany. The EUDC team picked up the device and shipped it immediately to the hospital in Barcelona. The physicians received the device at noon on a Tuesday and performed the endovascular procedure on Thursday. Following the procedure, the baby was stabilized and was soon well enough to undergo open-heart surgery.
According to Susana, the Spanish doctors were very grateful. The baby’s physician asked her to thank everyone involved for their efforts. “I would also like to thank everyone,” she said. “As a mother, this case was very stressful for me. I imagined it could be my son.”
Susana said she is comforted to know that she has help from colleagues around the world when emergencies like these arise. “The first priority for all of us at Cook Medical is the patient, and this case, with all the various team members pulling together, was a perfect example of that!”