SEPTEMBER 15, 2012
Smoke Signals
Tribal member's career is a breath off fresh air
10
By Ron Karten
Smoke Sitnnla stuff writer
When Micky Herron comes
around, people breuthe easier.
Herron, 35, of Junction City,
Kan., is a respiratory therapist at
Irwin Army Community Hospital,
a job that interests him technically
and allows him to give back to the
military he served for four years.
"It was the respiratory therapy
side that got me interested," Herron
said. 'The mechanics of it. There's
more to breathing than what we do
instinctively. Listening to other re
spiratory therapists talk to people,
that spiked my interest. There's not
a lot of people who think about how
your lungs work with your heart.
"I always had the biggest soft
spot in my heart for my brothers in
arms. One of my dreams, if you will,
is to give back to the military."
Following high school, Herron's
path took him to the Army where he
served in the peacekeeping force in
Bosnia. He was a gunner on a Brad
ley fighting vehicle. Stateside, he
served at Fort Irwin in the Mojave
Desert and at Fort Riley in Kansas
from 1995-98.
"I drove it around a lot," he said
of the Bradley.
He followed Army service with a
year in Topeka as a military police
officer trainee with the National
Guard.
After the service, he worked at
different occupations. "Trying to
find my niche," he said.
He ran his own bail bonds busi
ness for four years.
He became a driver for a medical
equipment company. He got a feel
for the industry there and decided it
was something he wanted to do.
It was 2007 before he started
thinking, "I had to use my G.I. Bill
(that helps with education costs)
within 10 years after serving in
the military. It was getting close.
J 7Tr ' Mi
Submitted photo
Micky Herron stands by tha unit that measures
pulmonary function. "Tha PFT Body Box, as wa
call it," Herron said.
I was 30."
Meanwhile, back in Grand Ronde,
Herron's mother, Sharon Wattier,
an Elder of the Tribe who works at
the Tribal Health Clinic, let him
know that additional help was avail
able through the Tribe. Between the
two, Herron said, "I was able to get
through three years of college with
out getting one single loan."
The Tribe provided assistance
for books, tuition and rental assis
tance, and the G.I. Bill helped with
the rest of his living expenses.
Wattier has been moved in dif
ferent directions by her son's suc
cess. "Well, I have to say he is a very
determined young man. He will do
whatever it takes to finish anything
he starts," she said. "Going to col
lege and working and supporting
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
Youth Education Department
Foit.
lip
Tentative Fall Field Trips:
August 27
ry Beach Jt
' Helser Vi u. r . " Vrli
Family Bowling and Costume Contest
Colli
ember 26
i iiinpui lours
- i
his daughter was very
stressful for him, but he
plowed through it and
achieved his goal. His
family and friends can
always depend on him;
he will help anyone. His
family means the world
to him, (though) his dis
tance apart from us does
leave a huge hole in my
heart as I don't get to see
him or his family very of
ten. We talk on the phone
and share our worries.
Just to hear his voice!
"We never know where
our lives will end up and
I truly did not think he
would end up in Kansas.
I am so proud of him and
what he has achieved.
He fills my heart with
pride and joy knowing
he has done what he
set out to do. The Army
was a blessing in giving
him a hands up with his
goals in life."
Monty started school at Cloud
County Community CollegeGeary
County campus, in Concordia,
Kan., in 2007.
"I had no idea, zero knowledge,"
he said, "when it came to college. I
didn't know anybody. None of my
friends had been to college. I had
nobody to turn to."
At the Tribal Education Depart
ment, John Harp, Continuing and
Distance Education specialist, and
Luhui Whitebear, College Advising
& Scholarship coordinator, helped
Herron learn "how to do this whole
college thing. Every stupid question
I asked, from the very, very begin
ning basics until I graduated with
an associate degree, they answered
all my questions and did everything
they could to help me."
"Micky Herron models very well
the concept of lifelong learning in
education," said Harp. "After a
break of over a decade, he returned
to school and excelled term after
term for the two years I had the
opportunity to work with him."
"I'm sure I would have made
it through," Herron said, "but it
wouldn't have been so easy."
Whitebear, who worked with
him through the former Competi
tive Scholarship program, said he
was "a great student to work with.
He seemed very motivated and fo
cused, which I am sure helped him
succeed in school."
Herron worked on his associate
degree for three years, continuing
to work at the medical supply store,
taking classes at night, almost all
the way to summer 2009.
Along the way, in 2008, he inter
viewed for one of 20 seats (among
75 to 100 applicants) in the respira
tory therapy program in Johnson
County. He was accepted, but
would still need his associate de
gree to be certified. He quit working
full-time and started his last year
of school full-time. He earned the
associate of applied science in Re
spiratory Care degree in May 2010.
He passed the National Board of
Respiratory Care test soon after,
on July 18, 2010.
Today, he is a respiratory thera
pist at Irwin Army Community
Hospital at Fort Riley. He took the
position, serving military person
nel and their families, in March of
this year.
"I feel like I am back home where
I started," he said.
The longer he is in the job, the
more he realizes how special his
expertise is. "A lot of regular people
just don't know what a respiratory
therapist is or does," he said. "We're
in clinics, in hospital settings,
there's sales (of equipment) and
education.
"We know how to evaluate for
asthma triggers. Most don't know,
but respiratory therapists do."
If it is inhaled medication, he
said, a respiratory therapist is go
ing to give it to you. Anytime any
one is being chemically aided by a
ventilator, a respiratory therapist
is running that ventilator.
There is lots of work behind the
scenes, including ventilator man
agement. When a respiratory therapist
measures arterial blood gas, "we
can analyze off that exactly how
much oxygen you are transfer
ring from your lungs to your blood
stream."
The job has challenges that have
tested Herron's skills.
"I never had to work with babies
in a nursery before. I never worked
with adolescents, but at this posi
tion I work with people from the
nursery up to geriatrics, and often
have to dig back deep into my stud
ies again.
"It can be stressful when work
ing with the babies; they're fragile,
brand new life."
Something else that most people
don't know is that respiratory
therapists are "the MacGyvers of
the medical field. If you can't find
a piece of equipment right away,
you go and piece something else
together to make it work. It is a
thinking person's position. When a
doctor tells you to find a connector,
you find a way to make that con
nector if you don't have it on hand.
That is one thing about respiratory
therapy: you have to have a little
bit of a mechanical skill."
Herron has "taken apart anesthe
sia circuits, essentially a flow tube
with returns, to make a connection
that I can deliver oxygen with."
He is on call 24 hours a day for
7 days every third week, and has
been called in for "a standby with
twins being born prematurely. I
had to be ready to put both on ven
tilators," he said.
Herron is now running EKG,
asthma and pulmonary function
test clinics.
"I was exposed to these through
out my studies," he said, "but now
I'm doing them."
Though the job is satisfying, Her
ron said, "When you lose somebody,
there's low times, too."
Herron was raised in Salem early
in his life and then in Santa Rosa,
Calif. He is married to Kelley, an
emergency room nurse, and they
live together with Herron's daugh
ter, Sierra, 14, and Kelley's son,
Michael, 17, in Junction City. 0