Parents are grateful for physician’s care: “She saved our son’s life”

By Maureen Gilmer, IU Health senior writer, mgilmer1@iuhealth.org

Jean Molleston was 13 when she decided to become a doctor. Not because there were doctors in her family but because a kindly physician on TV named Marcus Welby, M.D. inspired her.

Fast forward five decades and meet an almost 13-year-old Nico Santos whose parents are very glad Dr. Jean Molleston would go on to become a renowned gastroenterologist/hepatologist for Riley Children’s Health.

“She saved our son’s life, and I can’t even say that without crying,” said Laura Santos, who still remembers the fear she and her husband faced nearly a decade ago.

Dr. Molleston was chief of the Pediatric GI, Hepatology and Nutrition division at Riley when she agreed to meet with Mike and Laura Santos and their then-3-year-old son, Nico, after the family had a challenging experience at another hospital.

“It was night and day,” Laura Santos said, after meeting Dr. Molleston, who spent more than an hour going over Nico’s medical records with his anxious parents and sharing her opinion on the best course of treatment.

“From that moment, we knew we were in the right hands and that she was going to take great care of us. She 1,000 percent did.”

Nico was diagnosed with pancreatitis and a life-threatening pseudoaneurysm that required surgery. He was in and out of Riley for a year, continuing to follow up with Dr. Molleston until last year.

Now 12 and an avid go-kart racer, Nico is a healthy seventh-grader at Zionsville West Middle School.

FILLING HER SHOES

That patient story is just one of thousands that likely could be shared from Dr. Molleston’s 25-year career at Riley. For the past 19 of those years, she served as division chief before recently stepping down from leadership, but not from teaching and clinical care.

Her colleagues (including former division chief Dr. Joseph Fitzgerald), family and friends got together to celebrate her last week, praising her clinical expertise, her vision and her ability to bring people together for a common goal.

It’s a big job, and it will take at least two people to fill her shoes, one of them being Dr. Charles Vanderpool, who’s been with the department since Dr. Molleston recruited him from fellowship at Vanderbilt 14 years ago. Dr. Brian DeBosch will co-lead the division.

“It’s a testament to her legacy that they felt like two people needed to try and take on that mantle,” Dr. Vanderpool said. “It’s going to be tough.”

During Dr. Molleston’s tenure, the number of faculty/physicians more than doubled, and access to care improved throughout the state with satellite offices opening in Fort Wayne, South Bend, Bloomington and Evansville.

Last year, she was recognized with the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition’s Master Educator Award for the impact she has had in the areas of educational scholarship and mentorship.

“She’s really brought an unprecedented growth to our division,” Dr. Vanderpool said, underlining the increase in faculty and development of a hepatology program and pediatric psychology program, in addition to other sub-specialties.

“It has really been remarkable what she’s been able to do in increasing the national blueprint of our program and also solidifying the role of Riley within the state of Indiana.”

And it’s not just her role in expanding the division, he said.

“It’s the professionalism that she encourages, the compassion she fosters, the personal ownership and investment in being a physician and in mentoring trainees.”

For Dr. Molleston, there is no other way to work.

“AN AMAZING JOB”

“I enjoy people and making connections and building an organization where people feel a part of it and have a voice, and I enjoy helping people develop their careers so they are fulfilled in what they’re doing and recognized for it,” she said.

“It’s been an amazing job with an amazing group of people committed to teaching, to taking good care of patients and contributing to scholarly work,” she added. “It’s been just a joy, but after 19 years, I was ready to do some different things and let somebody else do the leadership heavy lifting.”

She will continue as a full-time GI and hepatology (liver) physician at Riley, while also focusing on research and medical education.

It’s a tribute to her dedication that she wanted to remain at Riley even after stepping down from leadership, Dr. Vanderpool said.

“To her, really this is still about service. It was never about being in charge or being the chief. It’s about serving and participating in care and education. She’s still excited to do that. And she wanted to be here to make sure we are supported and that she could provide mentorship and guidance even after stepping down.”

RIPPLE EFFECT

While she loves patient care and figuring out the mystery behind a child’s illness, she believes that teaching med students, residents and fellows has the biggest ripple effect of anything she does.

“Inspiring a student and knowing that you helped introduce them to medicine is super satisfying,” said Dr. Molleston, who grew up in Merrillville, Indiana, and went to Washington University in St. Louis for college, staying for medical school, residency, fellowship and the first eight years of her career.

The opportunity to come to Riley was too good to pass up – professionally and personally. A single parent of two young children at the time, she wanted them to grow up closer to her two brothers and her mom, and the job was everything she loved and more.

Those two kids are grown now – one a GI doctor like herself and the other a teacher. She is expecting her first grandchild next month. Dr. Molleston remarried 10 years ago, and she and her husband love to walk, hike, cook and travel.

As she reflects on her career at Riley and on the new role she will play, she is grateful for the people who have come into her life along the way.

“The GI doctors here are very knowledgeable, experienced and really care about their patients. They listen, they care about doing things right, they try hard to explain things well, and they write about what they see so we know more about these disorders,” she said. “It’s an environment where the kids get excellent care from a team that integrates the nurses, the psychologist, colleagues in other subspecialities, just everybody that makes a team.”

PARENTS AS PARTNERS

That team also includes parents, she said.

“I’ve worked with some incredible parents who’ve been through such hard times and they’re like partners. You listen to each other, and you make decisions together. To form that kind of partnership is really gratifying.”

Her patients also have taught her the value of truly listening, she said, “to figure out what’s important to them, not just assume that what’s important to me is important to them, to build a team where we’re all working for the same thing, to explain things well and simply so they understand what’s going on with their bodies because that understanding will help them take care of their bodies.”

Dr. Mary Ciccarelli, a colleague and good friend of Dr. Molleston’s, marvels at how well her friend balanced the demands of leadership while elevating others around her.

“The thing I admire most about her is her ability to look at the whole and build the whole rather than build the thing that is most important to her,” Dr. Ciccarelli said. “She paid attention to all the clinical expertise the department had to have and all of the educational needs with med students, residents and fellows and what they needed to be doing from a clinical research perspective as well as building bench research into the department.”

Comprehensive, relational and visionary are the words Dr. Ciccarelli uses to describe Dr. Molleston.

Comprehensive in the three legs of the academic stool – clinical care, education and research, she explained.

Relational with everyone on the team, serving as a mentor, an ally and a collaborator.

“She both has everyone’s back but pushes them forward,” Dr. Ciccarelli said. “She has the right moxie to push and protect. That’s high praise coming from me.”

And she has shown the vision needed to take the division in the direction it needs to go, Dr. Ciccarelli added.

“It’s a vision based on principles and excellence, and she drives her whole team toward that.”

MOXIE AND SKILL

As she pivots to a less demanding role, Dr. Molleston will no doubt remain a force within the department, Dr. Ciccarelli said.

“I expect she will still be doing the things she does with all of the gusto, skill and moxie that she has put into anything she does.”

And she’s not ready to give up the satisfaction she feels when connecting with a patient, a parent or a student to move medicine forward.

“If you find joy in your work, they feel it and that’s important,” Dr. Molleston said. “That’s part of the magic of medicine.”

Nico Santos and his parents definitely felt that joy when they were in the physician’s care, they said.

“Nico was never scared to see Dr. Molleston,” Mike Santos said, even at 3 years old. “No kid or adult really wants to see the doctor, but he always felt comfortable with her.”

In fact, he would ask to go to the hospital to see Dr. Molleston because he knew she was going to make him better, Laura Santos said.

“At 3, he knew she could fix him. Her compassion and love for Nico was truly exceptional. I'm still overwhelmed by the care and compassion Dr. Molleston had for us and our son during the most difficult time of our lives. She is someone we will always hold close to our hearts.”

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