While lying in a hospital bed, Alivia Heinzerling wasn’t thinking about herself or her seizure disorder.
Instead, the daughter of Andrea and Jason Heinzerling was pondering how to help others.
During an overnight stay Aug. 29 at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, Alivia was hooked up to a machine that monitored her sleep.
A nurse offered her a backpack, which would allow her to get up out of bed for a while.
The backpacks are used to help patients remain mobile. Children who are hospitalized are connected to machines that restrict their mobility. Many of the patients are able to use the backpacks to move around the hospital and visit places like the craft room.
The backpacks contain a battery pack where the machines’ wires can be hooked up to make the patient mobile.
“The nurse told her it was the last backpack they had,” said Andrea Heinzerling. “As we were watching TV, I could see the wheels in her little head spinning.”
