Wrapped in a mother’s love

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

There is something undeniably sweet about a humble heart surgeon who saves lives for a living turning the spotlight on his mom this Mother’s Day weekend.

Riley Children’s Health cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Jeremy L. Herrmann goes about his work quietly but skillfully, performing heart transplants and other complicated heart surgeries.

But true to his Hoosier roots and the Riley way, he shuns the limelight in favor of lifting up others. This time it just happens to be his mom he wants to focus on, because she has found a way to quietly support her son and his patients through quilting.

Dianne Herrmann took up quilting about 20 years ago as a way to keep her mind sharp and give her creative instincts a proper outlet. But there are only so many quilts she could give to friends and family.

“I needed a new outlet for my hobby, and when Jeremy joined Riley (in 2016), I talked to him about maybe making quilts for his transplant patients,” she said.

He got the approval from the necessary people, and the Riley Children’s Foundation donated 100 Riley patches for her to sew onto each quilt. She estimates she has made about 50 quilts – both kid-sized and adult-sized – dropping them off in bundles for transplant coordinators to give to patients and families when they leave the hospital.

“Knowing her passion for quilting and what our patients go through, it seemed like a fitting way to help honor them as they go home,” Dr. Herrmann said.

Just like her son, Dianne Herrmann is uncomfortable with fanfare. But she loves the idea of supporting his work in a small way.

“It gives me a connection to Jeremy that I wouldn’t have. I’m very proud of him, so whatever I can do to support him and especially this fantastic hospital, I’m willing to do it,” she said.

Jeremy Herrmann is the oldest of Dianne and Gary Herrmann’s four sons, all raised in Evansville with the same expectation: Share the gifts that you’ve been given.

All of her kids took that message to heart, she said, including her heart surgeon son, whom she occasionally calls “Dr. Herrmann.”

“His gift just impacts people in a more serious way,” she said.

From the time he was a little boy, he loved taking things apart and putting them back together, she said.

“He could sit for hours figuring it out. I think that was maybe your first clue you should be a surgeon,” she said to her son during a visit to Riley last month.

“We sometimes tease him about being 36 before he got his first real job (after years and years of school and training),” she added. “But what a job.”

What a job indeed.

Duncan Diehl and his mom, Nina Collins, are grateful that Dr. Herrmann went into medicine. Duncan, 15, was transplanted in January with a donor heart and is doing well today, Collins said. When he left Riley, he received a quilt made by Diane Herrmann, presented by social worker Laura Weiger and transplant coordinator Debbie Murphy.

“My grandmother used to quilt, and I wanted to learn to quilt from her, but life gets away from you,” Collins said, adding that she later bought a second-hand sewing machine and taught herself to quilt.

“It’s a very intimate process. Being an artist, I was able to appreciate that this was a different kind of art,” she said. “So, to me, when we were gifted that quilt, it was almost like a family connection, a strong feeling of caring.”

To feel that care from a relative stranger has its own healing energy, Collins said.

“Knowing what I do about the work that goes into a quilt, every stitch means something. And being on the maker’s side, I feel that energy come through.”

Dr. Herrmann appreciates the connection between his mom and the patients he treats, even though she will never know them.

“She can’t see what these families go through, the sacrifices they make, their determination, how they are doing everything they can to help their child or family member go home,” he said.

“That’s what inspires me constantly, and my parents inspired me and supported me all my life. For me, this is a unique connection in a tangible way.”