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I first heard about Hayley Lairmore through a comment card her mom, Christine, sent to Mayo Clinic after their visit to Rochester last December. It was an amazing story of how Hayley had been throwing up an average of 10 times a day for several months, and how Christine and her husband Robert had been unable to get answers from several hospitals in southern California. But early one September morning (about 1 a.m.) Christine stumbled upon a blog post from a Mayo Clinic patient, who described symptoms just like Hayley's and who mentioned her doctor, Phil Fischer, M.D. That led Christine to this video of Dr. Fischer, and this podcast, and eventually answers for Hayley.
Christine recounts the story in this post on Sharing Mayo Clinic, and you can read more about it in this story published today on ABCNEWS.com.
I was in California in May, and took the opportunity on Mother's Day to meet the Lairmores personally and to interview Christine and Hayley about the experience. The video below is the first of a series in which Mrs. Lairmore describes Hayley's illness and how social media tools like blogs and YouTube helped her find answers at Mayo Clinic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDdiNMzm-9E
Check back tomorrow for Part 2 of the series.
Lee Aase is manager of syndication and social media at Mayo Clinic.
