A pioneer steps down
DETROIT –
Heroine, friend, healer, confidante, mentor, advocate, teacher, champion, visionary. These are some of the adjectives to describe Dr. Kathryn Wright, an adolescent pediatrician who has devoted the last 15 years to treating teenagers in Detroit affected by HIV/AIDS.
Dr. Wright founded the Horizons Project in 1992, an adolescent clinic with a mission to support and love children and families affected by HIV. Her life's work, cut short prematurely earlier this year due to a medical disability, was recognized at a retirement celebration Oct. 12 at the Roostertail in Detroit, where over 250 people gathered to honor her remarkable legacy of care and service. Guests included fellow physicians, co-workers, patients, leaders of other HIV/AIDS organizations, friends and family.
Dr. Herman Gray, M.D., president of Children's Hospital, lauded Wright, her career and her contributions through the Horizon's Project. He described her as, "loving, learned, tenacious, and one of the nicest people I've ever had to argue with." He jokingly described her dogged appeals for more support and resources for the Horizons Project, and he applauded her extraordinary ability to garner resources for Horizons, which he said brought in over $10 million in grants and contributions.
Several days after the celebration, this writer met with Dr. Wright at her home in Pleasant Ridge which she shares with her life partner, Joette Lambert, and their 16 year old daughter. Wright discussed her career and her passion for her patients.
"Shame kills more than the disease," said Wright, who has treated over 1,200 people with HIV/AIDS between the ages of 13 and 24. "It is part of our (Horizon Project's) job to get them out of their shame and into a community. Eventually some of our patients have become teachers themselves and peer advocates. It's a powerful transformation to witness."
Wright received her doctorate of Osteopathic Medicine at Michigan State University in 1980, and completed her pediatric residency at the Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, and an Adolescent Medicine Fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle. In 1990, she returned to Detroit and to Children's Hospital as an attending physician and a teaching physician at the Wayne State University School of Medicine.
It was not long after her return to Detroit that she began seeing her first cases of HIV/AIDS in teens.
"Part of my clinical responsibilities were to provide service at a free clinic for teens at the Detroit Health Department," said Wright. "It was there in the early 1990s that I started seeing youth present with HIV/AIDS. It was also abundantly clear that these young people had a lot more needs than we were providing at the free clinic. They needed transportation, case management and patient advocacy.
"It was tough," she said. "Two of my patients died violently. One was a transgender prostitute who was murdered, and the other patient was shot."
Wright realized that to effectively treat the young people at the highest risk for HIV/AIDS, she needed to expand services to treat the whole person and their family.
"I would see young girls come to the clinic because they were pregnant. We had lots of single moms, and in the course of their pre-natal care we'd sometimes discover that they had HIV/AIDS. They were without community support, depressed and were unable to follow their medical regimen. Sometimes I'd feel like they would just give up and die," said Wright who set out to provide some of the services these young people needed so desperately.
Wright said that the Horizons Project was created with the needs of the young people always at the forefront of their plans. "We knew we needed to be very flexible with appointments, and that we had to work around significant issues that are unique to teens," said Wright. "Young people won't come to see me when they're sick because they were too ill to get there, and they won't come to see me when they were well because they feel good – why should they see a doctor? We have to be flexibile and 'teen sensitive' or they won't connect, and they won't come back. So we would see then when they showed up, whenever that was, even if they didn't have an appointment."
Wright has a driving commitment to her young patients, and to understanding their special needs. When asked what she sees as the biggest challenge in dealing with HIV/AIDS in teenagers today, she gave a surprising answer. "Young people don't feel it's a death sentence anymore," she said, acknowleding that new drugs and treatment options provide hope for her patients. "But it is actually harder in some ways to get their attention, and to keep them involved in their care. There is more denial since the advent of these new medications, and the denial complicates treatment because they don't think they need care. It often takes about 10 years for teenagers to convert from HIV to AIDS, and in the beginning they are still pretty healthy. We've had to face lots of non-compliance with medications and other care regimens."
The Horizons Project developed a peer model that helped to bridge the gap between the medical professionals and their young patients. "We would develop and hire young people who were infected themselves to become peer models. They'd become mentors, friends and guides for newer patients who could identify with them. We found that it dramatically increased adherence, and sometimes the peers would become a family that they'd never had," said Wright.
At the celebration, speakers included fellow pediatricians and co-workers, and Horizon's Project staffers who created a video of some patients and staff. Each speaker, whether live or on video, had their unique story to tell about Dr. Wright, but a universal theme throughout each was a message of gratitude, respect and love for her and for what she had given them. For some it was hope, others support, still others said they gained physical health, and one young woman thanked Dr. Wright for saving her life. In all, it was an extraordinary testiment to an extraordinary healer.
The Horizons Project will continue at Children's Hospital providing psycho-social and medical care to young people with HIV/AIDS, even though Dr. Wright will not be there. But she will be fondly remembered for her kindness and strength in reaching out to the most fragile of young people and giving them love, hope, care and a family that fully embraced them.
When asked what she misses most, she said, "My patients. I really miss seeing them every day. I miss the staff too, but my patients have that special place in my heart."
And she in theirs.
