“It’s the kids and the families that have kept me here”

By Maureen Gilmer, Riley Children’s Health senior writer, mgilmer1@iuhealth.org

At 6-foot-3, Dr. Robert Darragh is a towering and respected presence in the halls and clinics at Riley Hospital for Children. But to borrow one fan’s description, he’s also a “big teddy bear.”

You only have to crack the somewhat gruff exterior to find the gentle giant within – a man beloved by his patients and colleagues for his clinical skills and big heart.

The latter – the heart – is most appropriate because Dr. Darragh is a cardiologist, now in his 36^th year at Riley. He has walked alongside countless patients as they prepared for and recovered from the miracle of heart transplant.

He has bared his own heart with those patients, encouraging them through countless procedures, celebrating them at graduations and weddings, and yes, sometimes mourning them at funerals.

It all comes with the job. A job that the Pittsburgh native who hailed from a family of attorneys has loved since he stepped through Riley’s doors in 1989 as a young husband and father, excited to join a cardiology program that was poised to do great things.

“Dr. John Brown and Dr. Randy Caldwell had just started the pediatric heart transplant program here,” he said, at the time one of just a handful in the country.

“It was new and interesting and exciting. We had a relatively small group at the time, and there was ample opportunity for me to grow as a young cardiologist with a group of people committed to patient care and a community that was very supportive of the hospital.”

An animal lover, Dr. Darragh once thought he wanted to be a veterinarian. In fact, he and his wife, Annie, parents of two grown children, love dogs and horses. (Their daughter is an equine veterinarian.) They’ve owned several over the years and currently keep two horses in Noblesville, an expensive passion, he acknowledges.

“Buying a horse is cheap; owning a horse is expensive,” he joked. “They eat money.”

That’s one reason you won’t find him playing golf at a country club.

With horses as a hobby, human medicine won his heart, and patients like Kobe Brannan are grateful for that.

Brannan’s life has been in the cardiologist’s hands since he was born 26 years ago in Terre Haute and was rushed to Riley with a failing heart. Brannan has received not one, but two heart transplants, the first as an infant and the second a decade ago as a teenager.

Two years ago, Brannan did what a younger version of himself didn’t dare dream possible. He married the love of his life, and there to celebrate with him was Dr. Darragh, as well as transplant coordinator Debbie Murphy.

The man is a giant in Brannan’s eyes.

“He is serious and means business when he gives advice about medicines and my health,” Brannan said. “I trust and never doubt his plan.”

At the same time, the young man said, he and the doctor can talk for days about sports and the world.

“My clinic visits are never dull,” Brannan said with a chuckle.

Even now, at 26, Brannan should be transitioning to the adult cardiology world, but he appreciates that Dr. Darragh has not pushed him before he is ready.

“I appreciate Dr. Darragh for so many reasons. He has been the best.”

Murphy, who has worked alongside Dr. Darragh for decades, says “Dr. Bob” (as he is called by many of his patients) is the “ultimate doctor.”

“He has been key in the success of our pediatric cardiac transplant program, having joined the program shortly after it opened. For years, he has been on call 24/7,” she said.

“In the almost 25 years that I have directly worked with him, he has graciously given his full attention to any problem that one of his transplant patients may have, whether it was 2 p.m. on a Wednesday or 3 a.m. on a Saturday night,” Murphy added.

She could not have been successful in her own position for such a long time, she said, without the care and attention he shows patients and their families.

“While he is a cardiologist, he is always thinking as a pediatrician,” she said, “finding just the right way to mesh with a patient, whether it’s talking football, golf or playing in a band.”

Or perhaps watching videos with a young patient of garage doors going up and down, a quirk Murphy said she found absolutely “endearing.”

“He also excels as a teacher,” she said. “Countless nurses, residents and fellows have learned from him over the years.”

While he was hired as a transplant cardiologist at Riley, he’s always been more than that, Dr. Darragh said.

“I’m a jack-of-all-trades guy. I joke that I was the sixth person hired in the group and I felt like the sixth man on the basketball team.”

Lucky for Riley, he said, he’s a much better cardiologist than he was a basketball player.

He was the first person doing fetal Echoes at Riley, though now that team has grown substantially. He specialized in interventional cardiology for a while and served as the team’s EP (electrophysiologist) doctor, specializing in the heart’s electrical system and irregular heart rhythms.

Along the way, he and his wife got involved in supporting patient families who started a heart transplant Christmas party annually. For a while, they hosted the event at their church, but for the past several years, the party has taken place at the NCAA Hall of Champions in Downtown Indianapolis.

He can often be seen wearing reindeer antlers at the holiday party, a treat for the younger kids, who ask for pictures with him as if he were one of Santa’s reindeer.

That long-term connection with patients and families is a big part of the draw for Dr. Darragh.

“It’s the kids and the families that have kept me here,” he said.

Even when those “kids” aren’t kids anymore. Patients with congenital heart defects continue to come to Riley for care.

“I’ve grown up with these patients in a sense,” he said. “Taking care of a 35-year-old heart patient is something I’m comfortable doing, but I can’t really expect a lot of my younger colleagues to do that. They are pediatricians.”

At 67, the cardiologist acknowledges he is slowing down a bit, partially due to a knee replacement but mostly due to the young crop of cardiologists who are coming up in the ranks behind him, eager to learn and grow.

He no longer rounds on the Heart Center or CVICU, where he spent so much time, but he does find himself there occasionally when one of his longtime patients has been admitted or when he is asked to consult on a case.

While still a member of the transplant team and an associate professor of clinical pediatrics, he spends more time these days in the Riley Outpatient Center, particularly in the Echo lab, where he is associate director. He reads patient Echos and consults on care, and he performs fetal Echos on pregnant patients.

“I’m a sounding board for my young partners when they are trying to work through a complicated case,” he said. “I enjoy that a lot.”

He naturally collaborates with Riley’s heart surgeons, a team he would put up against any in the country.

One of those surgeons, Dr. Jeremy Herrmann, describes Dr. Darragh as “a sage of the Heart Center.”

“I always value his tremendous insights, especially for complex cases,” Dr. Herrmann said. “He is a staunch advocate for his patients, including those who may need a heart transplant or other advanced support.”

But it’s not just the skilled surgeons, nurses, physicians and support staff who make the Riley team so good, Dr. Darragh said. It’s Child Life, the school program, music and art therapy, in addition to the other more standard therapies, that help heal patients.

“It’s all of the things nobody is going to pay for from an insurance standpoint, but they are all part of the critical care for kids in a hospital, especially kids who are going to be here for long periods of time.”

It’s all part of the heart of Riley, he said.

“The heart of Riley is the kids and what we can do for those kids. People who work in a children’s hospital for any length of time do it as a passion. It can’t be just a job. There are a lot of kids going through tough things, and you have to help them through it. That can be mentally taxing on anybody.”

That heart shines through in Dr. Darragh, says Echo technician Nancy Kehlenbrink, who calls her colleague a “big teddy bear.”

“He’s one of the most brilliant doctors I’ve ever met but also one of the kindest to his patients. They all love him. And we all love him.”

Riley’s cardiology and heart surgery programs continue to be ranked among the best in the country by U.S. News & World Report.

Photos submitted and by Mike Dickbernd, IU Health visual journalist, mdickbernd@iuhealth.org