Today we’d like to introduce you to Kezia Fitzgerald.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Kezia. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
In January of 2011 I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. That same May, my daughter, Saoirse, was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma – an aggressive pediatric cancer. Our family was thrust into a new normal of cancer, hospitals and chemo. Saoirse was just 11 months old when she was diagnosed, and she had a PICC line, and later a central line, placed to get her medications. These lines were necessary for her treatment, but also posed a risk to her health. The nurses and doctors made sure we knew how careful we had to be with the lines, but they didn’t give us a way to manage and protect them so she could be a normal kid. The tape they used to hold it to her arm gave her a rash and she was constantly pulling and scratching at the line. When she caught it on her crib rail at the hospital just days into having her PICC, I knew I had to figure out a better way to keep her safe and comfortable.
I decided to create and sew a sleeve to keep her PICC off her skin and away from her hands. It had a button hole and a pocket, and kept her line accessible to her nurses when they needed to use it, but also kept it tucked away when not in use, and stabilized when it was connected. When Saoirse had her PICC removed and her central line placed, I drew from the same idea and created a chest wrap to keep her lines up and away from her diaper and her hands. But to us, the biggest stress relief was that when we put the sleeve and wrap on, Saoirse left the line alone and went back to playing like a normal kid. That was the big win.
Doctors, nurses and even other families in the oncology wing started asking me to make other sleeves and wraps for other kids, and that’s when I realized that we weren’t the only ones having issues keeping our kid safe and comfortable with these lines. I knew we had to try and help other patients and families. I was lucky that my cancer went into remission that year, but Saoirse died from her cancer in December 2011. We took some time to figure out how to move forward, and we knew that we had to keep helping other patients with lines and change the way that hospitals approached safety for patients with implanted lines. That’s how CareAline was born.
We found a Massachusetts manufacturer, had some samples made, and exhibited at a nursing trade show to see how other nurses would receive our ideas. We were overwhelmed with the feedback and interest in our sleeves and wraps. We knew that we needed to keep going and make sure to try and reach all patients with lines, and help increase the safety through the hospitals. We started selling the products to hospitals in 2013, and got a lot of feedback on those first versions. We took all that feedback and worked to tweak our designs and improve them so that we could fit as many different patients as possible. Over the years we have continued to work with both nurses and patients to take ideas and create new products that can work better within hospital workflow, but also fit more patients with different brands and types of lines.
While we sell our products directly to patients and families online as well, our primary focus has always been to change the way hospitals manage lines and to be something that hospitals provide to patients as part of their care. Colorado Children’s hospital saw a need to mediate their 23% dislodgment rate in their pediatric oncology patients, and they decided to trial our products. With our sleeves and wraps in place, dislodgment went from 23% to 0% – completely eliminating dislodgment when the products were being worn, and they started using the products hospital wide. This, as well as our new payer reimbursement code, has led to many more hospitals taking on the products for use in their systems, and we have additional clinical data coming out this fall on our original designs, as well as data being collected this fall on our newest, hospital workflow minded, designs. We have worked hard to navigate the path of becoming a valuable medical device, and we are changing the status quo in hospitals today.
As we move forward we are hoping to continue to expand from predominantly pediatric hospital use to more adult and geriatric use, as well as expand our product line to use our concept to manage different types of lines and tubes that patients deal with every day. Our passion is truly to help patients be able to live more normal lives while going through any kind of long term medical treatment. This passion comes from our experience with our daughter, but also my own cancer journey as my own disease relapsed in 2014. I’m still fighting this beast of a disease today. I know how difficult it is to have to constantly be in and out of treatment and hospitals, so any comfort we can give to other patients and families makes me feel like what we have gone through is all worth it. Saoirse is our motivation, and we are so glad that we are able to give other patients some of the freedom we were able to give to her.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We have had many challenges along the way. Being a cancer family, my own relapse has been a big challenge. Being in and out of different types of treatment again since 2014, it’s been a struggle to try and grow a family run business while trying to keep my health moving in a positive direction. It’s a challenge we are still facing, but that we use as a huge motivator to keep us moving forward with CareAline.
There are also a lot of challenges to creating a new way of doing things within a hospital. There have been many instances where we have been told to give up on targeting hospitals as our primary customer, but we know that in order to reach as many patients as possible, and to really have the biggest impact we can, we need to go right to the place where these patients are needing our products. Rather than having to find something or figure out their own solutions like we did, we don’t want patients to have to ask how to manage their lines, but rather have the hospital give them the solution as part of their standard of care. This helps not only the patient, but also the hospital.
We are now finally seeing the hospitals realize that our products can make an impact on their bottom lines as well as improve patient safety and satisfaction. This has led to many hospitals coming back to us a couple years after first being introduced to our products, and asking how to start implementing them in their institutions. This has given us the drive to keep pushing forward with our mission, and we know that it will be the way for us to help as many patients as possible.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about CareAline Products – what should we know?
Imagine – you’re in a hospital room scared, numb. There’s a tube sticking out of your arm. You try to get up. It pulls; it hurts! The nurse comes in and tapes it down. Later, she needs to use it for the first of 4 times that day. She yanks off the tape –tearing your skin with it.
I lived this when my daughter and I were both diagnosed with cancer. CareAline was born from this experience. We are making the next generation of line management, increasing safety, comfort and healing! Our functional, clinically effective sleeves and wraps keep patients safe and comfortable 24 hours a day. Hospitals need us to save money. Nurses need us to increase safety and efficiencies, and patients need us to LIVE comfortably and safely! Now imagine – You’re in a hospital room; a soft sleeve hugs your arm. Your nurse lets you sleep as she draws your labs. CareAline is making this happen today.
We were the first to bring functional line management garments to the hospital market and aim for becoming a standard safety device for all patients, of all ages. This sets us apart from other decorative or fashion focused companies who are aiming for the direct to patient market, or are only targeting small babies in hospitals. We know that the struggles with lines start at the place where they are put in, and that it isn’t only the youngest patients who needed the protection and comfort we provide.
CareAline was started because we knew we had to help other families like ours. This mission has really driven us to continue to work as hard as we can to reach as many patients as possible. Bringing a new product to market is tough, but it’s even tougher in medical – especially when you are creating something totally new, and trying to change the standard of care. We truly are taking a proactive approach to line safety – and that is something that we are seeing hospitals finally catch on to – especially in the pediatric market.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
CareAline would not be here without the help of many people and organizations who have supported our efforts over the past six and a half years. I may have been the one to create the original sleeves and wraps for Saoirse, but my husband, Mike, was the one who saw that we needed to grow this larger than what I could physically make myself. His never-ending drive to think about how many people we could really help a huge motivator to getting us was moving in the direction of mass manufacturing and selling directly to hospitals. We work together to use the experiences in our life to push CareAline forward and reach as many patients as we can.
We were lucky to connect with an amazing family while Saoirse and I were still in treatment. The Strandbergs were a great support during our treatment, and when they heard about what we wanted to do with CareAline, they helped us get off the ground and running. They have continued to support CareAline and us over the past 6 years both with time and financial investment. Our own families have also been a tremendous support to help us keep moving forward, and help support us through our journey fighting cancer, living as bereaved parents and being entrepreneurs.
We have participated in a few competitions over the years that have put us in front of some amazing key players in CareAline’s successes. We won first place in the Innovation Tank held by Boston Children’s Hospital at their Global Pediatric Innovation Summit in Boston in 2014. At this event we met Dr. Anthony Chang. He invited us to join him at the Pediatrics 2040 conference, and be part of the International Society of Pediatric Innovation (iSPI) to share the patient and family perspective on innovation in the pediatric healthcare space. We won both first place prizes and the Mark Cuban award at the Impact Pediatric Health Pitch Competition at SXSW in Austin in 2015. We also worked with Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks Foundation to donate 1000 Mavericks branded products to Med City Children’s Hospital in Dallas. We won second place at the South Central Ohio Healthcare Supplier Diversity Symposium pitch competition in Cincinnati in 2016. We met some amazing people at all of these competitions, and each of them led to connections that grew CareAline both in hospitals and in the pediatric innovation space.
More recently we were accepted into the MassChallenge Boston accelerator in their 2017 cohort. The amazing program and mentors were integral in helping us to really focus CareAline as a company, and prepare us for our growth. CareAline was chosen as one of the top 26 finalists in the accelerator, and we won a gold award for our efforts. Our lead mentor, Ron Bor, was an integral supporter and a key to our success at MassChallenge, and we are so thankful to be continuing to work with him as we grow our company. CareAline is currently an Alumni in Residence Company for the 2018 MassChallenge cohort, and I am one of the facilitators for the Woman Founders Network – supporting female founded companies in their journey through the accelerator and building their companies.
Some of the shining stars are the nurses, doctors and patients that we have worked with over the years. Without their love of our products, their efforts in sharing them with others, and their push for them to be accepted into the hospital system, we would not be able to help as many people as we have. Their support and feedback has helped us grow the most, from running clinical trials and collecting data, to sharing their experiences with our products in presentations and testimonials. We know that we would not be where we are today without their amazing support, and we are truly grateful.
Pricing:
- CareAline Sleeve: 24.95
- CareAline Wrap: 34.95
Contact Info:
- Address: CareAline Products
17 Conant St #61 Danvers, MA 01923 - Website: www.CareAline.com
- Phone: 617-548-7419
- Email: info@carealine.com
- Instagram: @CareAlineProducts
- Facebook: @CareAlineProducts
- Twitter: @CareAlineTweet
Image Credit:
Eric Jacobs (photo of Kezia kissing Saoirse’s head)
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