Travis Anderson, a 2011 School of Allied Health Professions alum, and his wife, Natalie, were featured on a recent episode of “House Hunters” on HGTV. The show featured the young couple looking for a new home in their new hometown of Peoria, Ill.
That’s pretty cool.
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| UNMC alumnus Travis Anderson and his wife Natalie, pictured with their daughters, Alexa, older, and Brooklyn Paige, recently appeared on an episode of HGTV’s “House Hunters” as they searched for a house in Illinois. One of the show’s viewers became interested in clinical profusion — Anderson’s profession — while watching the show and is now a potential applicant to UNMC’s School of Allied Health Professions. |
David Holt, program director of clinical perfusion education, missed seeing his former student on the show. But he heard about it. Not long after it aired, Holt got a phone call. The person on the line was calling to inquire about UNMC’s perfusion program.
The guy had never heard of perfusion until just recently, he said, but it sounded like something he might be interested in as a career. And he knew UNMC was the place to go.
Holt always asks — he knows no one grows up dreaming of becoming a perfusionist; outside of the medical community, you never hear about it. What made the guy become so interested in perfusion?
Well, he was watching his favorite show, when …
“I heard about it on HGTV,” the prospective applicant said.
In the episode, in addition to showing the Andersons tour houses, there was an introductory segment that mentioned that Travis was a clinical perfusionist (he works for Life Services, Inc., which works with Peoria’s two hospitals), and that he’d studied at UNMC.
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| The Anderson’s new house in Peoria, Ill. |
Now THAT’S pretty cool.
Holt said the caller has since come to campus and done a couple of job shadows. He may yet become an official applicant to the program.
Thanks to seeing it on “House Hunters.”
Note: Perfusionists ensure patients have proper blood flow and oxygen levels, often in open-heart surgery.
Second note: Yes, the Andersons got their house. And it’s beautiful. (See the image above.)