Parent’s Perspective: PA Andy Herber Shares Insights as the Father of a Cancer Survivor

Bridging that gap between provider, parent, and patient

August 13, 2024

By Dave Andrews

Parents never want to hear that their child has a life-threatening illness. Nor do providers ever want to deliver such diagnoses. So, imagine being the parent—who also happens to be a provider—and managing the whirlwind of emotions that come after learning your child has cancer.

Such was the case for PA Andy Herber who, in 2018, was told his 4-year-old son Nathan had developed high-risk T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma.

“One of the worst things you can hear as a parent is that your child has cancer. That just completely derailed everything for us,” said Herber, who specializes in hospital medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

[PA Herber is just one of the speakers presenting at the Adult Hospital Medicine Boot Camp this September, hosted by AAPA and the Society of Hospital Medicine. Register today!]

“And having the medical understanding that I have, it sometimes made it even worse [for me] because I was constantly worrying about the worst-case scenario,” he added.

For the next two and a half years, Nathan received chemotherapy and required countless hospital stays. During the worst stage, Nathan spent three straight months in the hospital on life support and, at one point, had less than a 10% chance of survival.

Although their home was only five minutes from the hospital, Herber and his wife seldom left Nathan’s side during that time. “It was brutal watching him go through all of that. It was minute to minute with him, and we honestly didn’t know if those were going to be his final moments,” Herber said.

Luckily, Nathan beat the odds and survived what Herber calls “one of the most dire situations I’ve ever seen.” His cancer has been in remission for nearly four years and he’s now able to resume the life of a healthy, 10-year-old kid—playing video games, running the bases in Little League, and having fun with friends.

But Nathan’s battle with cancer was not the only health hurdle for the Herber family. Each of Nathan’s two brothers also had medical issues of their own: his older brother dealt with epilepsy when he was younger, and Nathan’s twin has eight life-threatening food allergies.

“Between the three of them, we’ve spent a lot of time in the hospital and in emergency rooms,” Herber said. “I’ve often said that I’m the luckiest unlucky guy because we’ve faced a lot of challenges, but fortunately, we’ve had access to world-class care with Mayo right in our backyard. And we’ve received a tremendous amount of support from friends, family, and the community.”

Giving Back by Paying it Forward
All of the support they received during their sons’ ordeals inspired the Herbers to look for ways they could give back. So, in 2021, Herber and his wife established the Super Herber Bros. Foundation to help other children and their families navigate similarly difficult situations.

The foundation partners with Mayo Clinic to host several events throughout the year to raise awareness and support for children with cancer, epilepsy, and food allergies. In addition to funding a scholarship for continuing education for pediatric nurses, co-sponsoring blood drives, and coordinating many other initiatives, the foundation hosts its flagship fundraiser—a Mario Kart tournament— every September during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

The sixth annual Mario Kart tournament will be held this year, and Herber anticipates as many as 500 kids, colleagues, and community members will come to the Mayo Civic Center to play games and raise donations to fight childhood cancer.

“Each year we get more and more involvement from the community and local businesses at our fundraising events,” Herber said. “It’s continued to grow to the point that [the foundation] feels like it’s become a second career for me.”

Sharing Perspectives from the Other Bedside
In addition to his work with the foundation and his primary duties in hospital medicine, Herber works as an assistant professor at the Mayo College of Medicine and serves as the chair of PA and nurse practitioner education at Mayo.

In each of his roles, he continually looks for opportunities to share his unique experiences and lessons learned as both a provider and a parent. Herber has also been a featured presenter at several noteworthy events including AAPA’s annual conference, the Canadian Association of PAs annual conference, and multiple Mayo Clinic CME courses, among many others.

“When you’ve experienced the hospital setting as a patient or a family member of a patient, you have a whole different perspective of what the patients’ needs really are,” said Dr. Jamie Newman, MD, MHA, MACP, a hospitalist at Mayo Clinic and Herber’s collaborating physician. “We as providers can think we know what families need, but until you’ve been on the other side, it’s difficult to truly understand it.”

Herber will also be a keynote speaker at the upcoming Adult Hospital Medicine Boot Camp, Sept. 18-22 in Phoenix. His presentation will highlight several seemingly insignificant aspects of care that are often overlooked by providers, but in fact, can have a substantial impact on patients and their families.

[Register for the Adult Hospital Medicine Boot Camp today!]

“He’s such a dynamic lecturer who has a unique way of keeping the crowd engaged, whether he’s talking about clinical topics such as lab medicine or telling a personal story,” said PA Jennifer Palermo, who works in hospital medicine at Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

Palermo, who will also be a presenter at this year’s Boot Camp, has collaborated with Herber on several education courses and conference programs through the years, and she admires his unique style of public speaking—even on some of the most difficult topics.

“He somehow still finds ways to infuse just the right amount of humor into his presentations and effectively makes connections with his audience,” Palermo said. “I think his story is incredibly valuable for providers to hear [because of how] it bridges that gap between the viewpoints of the provider, the parent, and the patient.”

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