KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Dr. Alejandro Quirago has been selected to lead Children’s Mercy Kansas City as president and CEO, the hospital system announced on Wednesday.

Quirago will join Children’s Mercy on Jan. 2, 2025, after most recently serving as president of Corewell Health, the largest health care system in Michigan.

“This is a dream come true. I am truly honored to join this amazing team at Children’s Mercy. I have watched Children’s Mercy from afar and have been inspired by the excellence in pediatric clinical care and groundbreaking research,” Quiroga said. “I have long admired Children’s Mercy and the impressive, caring and committed talent that makes this hospital system world-class.

“Joining a team that is brimming with excellence, as well as a community that is so deeply supportive of the research and care delivered to children, is truly energizing. Together, we will continue to live out the purpose of Children’s Mercy — to create a world of well-being for every child we serve. My family and I cannot wait to make the move to such a compassionate, forward-thinking community.”

His tenure with Corewell included overseeing a health system that included the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, nine other hospitals and over 120 ambulatory sites, among other things.

He also oversaw the largest teaching hospital — the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

“I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Quiroga, a pediatric nephrologist and inspiring leader with a strong research mindset, as the new President and Chief Executive Officer of Children’s Mercy. We knew Dr. Quiroga was the ideal choice for Children’s Mercy,” Diane Gallagher, Board Chair for Children’s Mercy, said in a press release. “He stood out for his impressive experience leading a successful, growing hospital system with a spirit of humility, optimism, innovation and a deep passion for caring for children. We are energized by the next chapter under Dr. Quiroga’s leadership.”

Quirago is praised for enhancing patient experience, helping strengthen employee retention, building a strong culture of trust and inclusion, and helping establish community partnership, according to a press release.

Children’s Mercy began its search for a new CEO in May when Paul Kempinski retired after leading the hospital system for six years.

—

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas Citian Geoffrey Arbuckle is sharing his message of hope this holiday season, crediting his family, faith and community for helping him find fulfillment after a lifelong battle with mental health.

“It is an absolute miracle in the way this community and this city have come around me, and I just want to show them it was worth it,” Geoffrey said.

At the age of 20, Geoffrey found himself fighting for his life after a drunk driver put his college baseball career on hold.

The crash left him with a broken neck, his left side paralyzed and in a constant state of excruciating pain.

“I spent months in the hospital and months in rehabilitation, learning how to walk again. Having recovered from that, I think that I carried the weight of that accident for decades and I really didn’t pay attention to my mental health,” he said. “I think the miracle of surviving a broken neck, paralysis and recovery was a weight that I was too immature and maybe too young of a Christian in my faith to bear.”

Eventually, Geoffrey’s mental health struggles led him to lose hope, slowly chipping away at his desire to live.

On May 5, 2023, he attempted to end his life, but destiny had different plans.

“I credit my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who was with me in the garage when I made that fateful decision,” he said. “I didn’t realize I would live, I didn’t realize that I would be saved, but I did know that He would never leave me and that faith permeates every aspect of my life.”

Once again, Geoffrey found himself fighting for his life. But this time, he was surrounded by the unwavering support of his guardian angel China, his wife.

KSHB 41

“It’s no different than if our spouse got a medical diagnosis that was debilitating or they lost their job,” China Arbuckle said. “We don’t just leave them, we’re there unconditionally through thick and thin, through the good and the bad times, and I just knew that our relationship was strong enough that we could make it through anything and I love him.”

The attempt on his life left Geoffrey with permanent vision loss, but the Arbuckle family was determined to illuminate a new path.

Geoffrey’s son, Chandler, came across Missouri’s Vocational Rehabilitation Services, which offers a program called the Business Enterprise Program.

At its core, the program is known for creating job opportunities for visually impaired Missourians by developing business sites in state, federal and other locations.

Geoffrey applied and was admitted into the program in February.

“I went through an interview process, I went through some testing and then was immediately put into their training program,” he said. “And after graduating, I was then given the opportunity to own and operate my own business.”

KSHB 41

By October, Geoffrey was given the green light to own and operate a convenience store inside a downtown Kansas City federal building.

Due to federal regulations, KSHB can’t disclose the location of his store, but Geoffrey believes faith and hope have returned every time he shows up for work.

“This is the best time of my life. I am doing exactly what I want to do every day,” he said.

From balancing business margins to ensuring the store is stocked and in top shape, Geoffrey is able to give his customers a unique experience.

Each customer’s selection fuels his family’s miracle and dispenses hope to a man who now walks by faith rather than sight.

“This miracle, I bear differently. I share it, actually, with the community; I don’t hide it,” Geoffrey said. “I will no longer hide my disabilities. I may work with less, but I’m not less. I’m more blessed to be here, I’m more blessed to be in this community, and I wouldn’t trade my spiritual sight and my spiritual health for my physical sight or physical health.”

The Business Entrepreneurs Program under Missouri’s Vocations Rehabilitation Services helps blind persons achieve success as self-employed entrepreneurs.

As Kansas City continues to embrace the holiday season, a time when loneliness and darkness are often most felt, the Arbuckle family hopes their community remembers there are angels all around to guide you through life’s darkest steps.

“There’s a lot of depression, especially this time of year,” China Arbuckle said. “It’s a joyous season for me, but I understand that there are a lot of people that don’t see it that way, and they just need to get help. Call someone, call a friend, call us, call a help hotline; help is there.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health or suicidal thoughts and actions, text or call the suicide and crisis lifeline at 988.

—

KSHB 41 Traffic anchor/reporter Daniela Leon covers all sorts of transportation topics across Kansas City. Have a story idea to share or a question about something in your neighborhood? Send Daniela a news tip.

It’s an ambitious legacy for a community of fewer than 600 citizens. But Lecompton, 13 miles northwest of Lawrence, has leaned into the challenge. After all, for six contentious years it was the capital of the Kansas Territory, before the state was admitted to the Union in 1861. 

Consider Constitution Hall, built by the pro-slavery Sheriff of Douglas County, Samuel Jones, in 1856. The following year, according to Lecompton historian Tim Rues, the second of four constitutions proposed for the state of Kansas was signed there. It protected the enslavement of human beings in Kansas and excluded free Black persons from entering. Free Staters, anticipating an election rigged by Missouri settlers, boycotted the vote. 

The Lecompton Constitution was then debated in the U.S House of Representatives in February 1858. If not for a late-night brawl that tabled the proceedings, eventually splitting the Democratic party over the issue of voter fraud, Kansas might have entered the Union as a slave state. 

For this hugely consequential turn of events, Constitution Hall is now a Kansas and National Historic Landmark; a good place to introduce or update your knowledge of the border war. Plan your visit around a presentation called “Bleeding Kansas.”

The Lecompton Reenactors are a group of historical interpreters who “bring to life a turbulent time in Kansas history,” says Steve Germes, who portrays Kansas’ first governor, Charles Robinson.

One weekday this spring, I witnessed this mock debate over the issues of popular sovereignty and slavery to a captive audience of two dozen high school students. Other interpreters represented James Lane, U.S.senator and leader of the Kansas Brigade during the Civil War, abolitionist John Brown, a fictional slave catcher named Felix, Sheriff Samuel Jones, and two important Kansas women, Sara Robinson and Clarina Nichols. They provided a moral counterpoint to the flawed men on both sides of the debate.

Historically, no such debate ever took place. Women were forbidden to speak in the public sphere. Lane and Robinson, both free staters, were political enemies, rarely seen together. And Sheriff Jones was usually preoccupied with keeping the state’s more radical abolitionists in check. 

The speeches were well-researched. The interpreters were passionate about their messages, regardless of side. 

Recreator Paul Bahnmaier, speaking as Sheriff Jones, highlighted the legitimacy of the Lecompton government, while skirting the issue of legalizing chattel slavery, as he challenged abolitionists’ rights to be in Kansas in the first place. 

“What did you come here for?” he asked. “Why did you not go instead to Minnesota or Nebraska where you would be welcomed?  But no, you want to get all of the territory, but damn you, you shall not have it as it belongs to the South.” 

Lecompton native Bahnmaier coined the town’s brand, Where slavery began to die. Republican Abraham Lincoln, he points out, was only elected in 1860 because of that Democratic party split. Eventually, the anti-slavery Topeka Constitution was ratified by the Senate — 40 days after South Carolina seceded. 

“Without this splitting, Lincoln would never have been elected president and who knows how much longer slavery would have existed?” he said.

There is yet more history to learn in Lecompton. In anticipation of the Congressional passage of the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution, a territorial capitol building was begun with a $50,000 federal appropriation. Yes, Kansas was that close to becoming a slave state! 

Today, the building houses the Territorial Capital Museum. Displays about politics of the 1850s and ’60s show the role that Lecompton played in elections from Massachusetts to California. The small Democratic headquarters cabin nearby adds to the story of how the Lecompton Constitution enabled Lincoln to be elected with just 39% of the popular vote. 

The town offers a thorough introduction to the constitutional crisis in the border war story. Kansas was not predestined to enter the Union as a Free State. It took any number of articulate and committed abolitionists to accomplish this.  

On the other hand, rad what the Rev. Samuel Adair, a relative of John Brown, observed about some of the self-proclaimed abolitionists who settled the territory. “Their free-soil is free soil for white, but not for black. They hated slavery but they hated the Negro worse.” 

If this legacy catches anyone by surprise, stay tuned.

Frank Barthell is a former video producer at the University of Kansas. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.