ZACHARY
INSPIRES PART OF THE TNT MOVIE "14 HOURS" A
JOHNSON & JOHNSON SPOTLIGHT
PRESENTATION™
Zachary's
experience during the
flood of Houston in 2001
was the inspiration for
the character "Baby
Jeremy" in the
movie. Zachary
weighed 2 lbs when
Tropical Storm Allison
flooded Memorial Hermann
Hospital, where he was
born. The hospital
lost power and, to live,
Zachary needed the warmer
(he was too small to
create his own heat) and the breathing machine.
Zachary
with Larry (his
dad) the day
he was born (May
15th 2001).
This picture was
taken by Larry
along with others
so that Yamile
could see Zachary
as she was too
sick to go visit
her baby.
For
10 hours Zachary was kept
alive "by hand"
until he was evacuated.
His mother held him
against her chest with
skin-to-skin contact
(Kangaroo Care) to give
him warmth, help his
heart-rate and stress,
while his father and
nurses (Anderson Moya and
Mike) hand-ventilated
him. The NICU
doctors (Dr. Fernando Moya
and Dr. Jose Garcia) and the staff were
working to find the 22
different hospitals that
accepted the 79 babies in
the Unit. Dr.
Fernando and Anderson Moya
are now Zachary's
Godparents.
We
salute the doctors,
nurses, and staff that
made the safe evacuation
of 600 patients a
reality. We also
salute and thank the
hospitals that accepted
the patients that were
evacuated.
Zachary
is healthy and happy, bilingual, with lots of
scars that are a reminder
that there is a God, and
of his fight and perseverance
of the 5 months in the
hospital.
Picture provided by Jeff
Shaw/UH Cullen College of
Engineering from the
University of Houston
How
was Zachary's story in the
movie?
After
the flood, in August 2001,
Peter Michelmore from
Readers Digest® came to
the hospital to do
research for an article he
wanted to write about the
flood and the evacuation
of the hospital. He
talked to numerous people
and patients and he
requested to talk to the
mother or any baby that
was in the hospital during
the ordeal. Since I was
in the hospital every day,
Mr. Michelmore interviewed
me and met Zachary.
The story was supposed to
be published in December
2001 but it was moved due
to the schedule change of
the magazine because of
the tragedy of September
11.
The
article titled
"Blackout" was
published in the April
2002 issue of Readers
Digest® and Zachary's
story was one of the three
patients that were
featured in the
article.
In
October 2004 I was
contacted by the producer
of the movie "14
Hours" to see if we
would be interested
in sharing our story for
the movie. The writer and
a representative of the
producers came to Houston
and did several days worth of
interviews with doctors,
nurses, staff, patients,
city officials, etc.
They came to our house to
interview us and to meet
Zachary.
The
producers selected Zachary's
story as one of the
rolling stories of the
movie. Zachary's
name is Jeremy, Yamile is
Emilia (Pamela Diaz), and
Larry is Gary (Rick Dobran). Our last
name is Walker. This
is a movie (drama) not a
documentary so some of the
facts were changed.
Thanks
to Cosmic Entertainment,
Johnson & Johnson,
MAGNA Global Entertainment
(MGE), TNT, and the
actors for making this
movie and for doing
something that Zachary
will enjoy watching when
he grows up
We
join in saluting
the nurses that had such
an important role in the
evacuation of all the
patients.
A
JOHNSON & JOHNSON
SPOTLIGHT PRESENTATION is
a service mark of Johnson
& Johnson
Turner Network Television
(TNT) A Time Warner
Company
