Six-month campaign for Childrens Hospital strikes chord with family

The fall of 2000 was like an episode from the television series “House” for one La Cañada Flintridge family. Doug and Victoria Turley rushed their then- 13-year-old son Conor to the family doctor and then to Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles after flu-like symptoms were followed by blood blisters that formed on his joints and pressure points.

The family doctor told the Turleys that Conor’s symptoms were beyond his comprehension. Then, a team of four Childrens Hospital doctors misdiagnosed Conor, Doug Turley said, as he recalled the traumatic events. Cortisone treatments made Conor’s symptoms worse. He suffered from internal hemorrhaging and was put on a feeding tube. No matter what doctors tried, the youth continued to deteriorate.

“We were told he might not survive. He was incredibly weak,” Victoria Turley recalled, tears and a break in her voice demonstrating the effect of the ordeal, even now, seven years later. “It was just so difficult to watch someone — your son — who had such a bright future. You just wanted him to survive.”

And survive he did. This week, the 6’7” young man is heading off with a basketball scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, after serving a two-year mission to Chicago’s inner city through his church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles has been treating seriously injured children since 1901. Every year, more than 62,000 children are treated in its emergency department, according to the hospital’s Internet website.

Conor Turley is one of myriad pediatric cases treated by Childrens Hospital that has affected the La Cañada community. That’s why the six-month Communities That Care fund-raising campaign — which began July 1 with a $1 million donation from another local family — has struck a cord with residents, many of whom feel they owe the hospital so much.

“We love Childrens Hospital,” Victoria Turley said. “It’s impossible to express our gratitude.”

The turning point for Conor came nearly three weeks after the ill child entered the hospital. “As parents, we were trying to find anything, Conor was growing weaker, and we wanted to find anything that could save our son,” Doug Turley said. The couple talked with a veteran nurse at the hospital and asked if she had ever seen similar symptoms in a patient. “She told us she had,” he said, adding that the nurse suggested the family talk with Childrens Hospital rheumatologist Dr. Andreas Reiff.

“Dr. Reiff saved my life,” Conor Turley said. “It was a miracle, that’s the only way I can describe it. The Lord and Childrens Hospital. It was a miracle.”

Reiff ran tests and diagnosed Conor with polyarteritis nodosa, a rare autoimmune disease that involves spontaneous inflammation of the arteries. The disease is most common in middle age people, which is what initially threw the other doctors off, Conor’s dad said.

Tests revealed that a mid-sized artery had ruptured in Conor’s liver and kidney. The correct diagnosis came just in time, Doug Turley said, adding that if the disease had progressed, bleeding would have gone into Conor’s heart and into his brain. Reiff took Conor off cortisone, slowly, and started him on chemotherapy. “He started getting better immediately.”

Conor’s mom also credits Childrens Hospital and Reiff with saving her son’s life.

“Conor wouldn’t give up, he had 27 transfusions. By all accounts, he should have died,” his mother recalls. “But, Dr. Reiff gave him the opportunity to survive. This valiant spirit had the chance to survive and we are eternally grateful.”