Megan Patterson - “Doctor Overcomes Life Challenges” [Edward Truemper

Doct0r Overcomes Life Challenges

A school in Marshall, Texas denied a young boy the necessities he needed to succeed in school. Little, Edward Truemper struggled to master the alphabet and reading was a challenge. He could not visualize the letters and after three months, he could recite the alphabet without truly understanding what he was saying.

Truemper’s parents began to worry about how far behind he had fallen in school, specifically in reading and math. The school told his parents they had him tested and their results showed that he was “borderline retarded.” His parents realized that he could not read or write. He was taken to Dr. James Harris, his pediatrician, to get tested. Dr. Harris diagnosed Truemper with dyslexia and dysgraphia, which was a very rare diagnosis in 1960.

The school system in Texas did not believe the diagnosis. Dr. Harris kept fighting for Ed and he took the case to the state capital in Austin to speak with the State Board of Education and the state superintendent of schools.

Truemper said, “Dr. Haris threatened to go public if the school system did not educate me with the methods that a child with dyslexia needs. And from there on I was able to master my work, overcome dyslexia and dysgraphia, and became a star pupil in the school.”

Ed eventually earned a scholarship to the University of Mississippi and defeated all the odds that were stacked against him. Since he was around the age of 6 he knew he wanted to become a doctor. He worked hard to become a pediatrician in critical care medicine, which led him to the creation of ELI.

Dr. Truemper met Eli when he was taking care of him. Eli sadly passed away one week after being born in May 2015. His parents wanted to make a difference for kids like Eli all around the world. They decided to help fund a project to develop a headset that could monitor blood flow in the brain. His family wished for Dr. Truemper and his partner, Dr. Greg Bashford, to make something consequential.

They then came up with the idea to make the headset wireless, which would need a link. They provided the option to brainstorm what to call this wireless headset. The final name is Electronic Link Interface which stands for E.L.I. Truemper explains how Eli’s name is now ascribed to this microchip, which allows doctors to be able to monitor brain blood flow wirelessly.

Today, Truemper is working on making his invention more accessible to people. His goal is to be able to get this into ambulances to monitor the blood flow in the brain of people in critical conditions. “We are embedding the chip into a medical device that could be a handheld instrument,” Truemper said. This chip would only weigh approximately nine ounces. This would allow the emergency response personnel to be able to evaluate a patient more precisely and quicker before reaching a hospital.

Truemper is in the process of receiving funding to be able to build the prototype that will be used in the back of an ambulance for testing. The Lincoln Fire Department and other EMS programs across Nebraska have shown interest in E.L.I. with helping to field test it.

Along with developing his wireless headset project, Dr. Truemper is working on writing his first book. He started writing his book in January 2021, and he intends to have the first draft finished in the late spring of 2022. He says he has always been an avid reader and Truemper recalls the idea for writing a book started around 15 years ago.

Truemper questioned what his life would become when he decided to leave clinical medicine. He brainstormed many different storylines. By doing that, he came up with the perfect story to tell. “My novel is about an emotionally bereft physician executive, whose childhood tragedies led him to many obstacles in his life,” Truemper said. “He is only able to overcome these obstacles when he is confronted with a tragedy at a small-town hospital. There he finds his humanity, and the plot continues.”

Truemper has mentored 200 to 250 people inspiring them to want to create change in their everyday lives. He explains that he can tell people what to do, and what not to do, but at the end of the day you control the way you want your life to go. He loves the fact that he gets to watch his mentees grow up into amazing people, who all have

By J1 Reporter Megan Patterson

Treumper said, “Most of the achievements I have made come from the interaction with others and patients.”

different goals and ideas of success. He sees his mentees become anywhere from a lawyer, doctor, teacher, and even a mother or a father. He says, “ The bottom line is not me determining what their success should be, it is allowing them to create their own success so that they can feel they are being consequential in their lives.” He values the relationships he builds and will do anything he can to help anyone he asks for his advice and guidance.

Dr. Ed Truemper has overcome many obstacles in his life. When life threw a curveball in his early years, he never wanted to quit; he always kept going. “The way to handle obstacles is not to keep battering them, but find a way around them,” he said. His key to success was perseverance. He willed himself to become the best student he could specifically in reading and mathematics. “All along, it has been a struggle and this struggle can defeat you,” Truemper said, “but perseverance is the tool you can use to overcome the obstacles life throws at you.”