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Kelsey Renard Lambou: The Helper

Medical student helped collect PPE for hospitals when COVID-19 pandemic started

Published: July 30, 2020   

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

Jeff Stotts

Kelsey Renard Lambou, 25, smiles at her alma mater Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock while collecting donated personal protective equipment. She and other medical students spearheaded a movement to collect PPE for local hospitals in need at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jeff Stotts

Kelsey Renard Lambou, 25, smiles at her alma mater Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock while collecting donated personal protective equipment. She and other medical students spearheaded a movement to collect PPE for local hospitals in need at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Q&A: What important figure, dead or alive, would you like to meet and why?

I would say probably Frida Kahlo. She inspires a lot of my artwork, and I feel like she’s a very powerful woman.

Kelsey Renard Lambou, 25, is most interested in the heart of a person, but not just figuratively. 

“The heart is just the coolest organ. It’s just awe-inspiring to me to see an organ beat on its own. It’s kind of like my area where I feel closest to God because it’s awe-inspiring to see what God created and see how it works.” 

She’ll be starting her third year of medical school at UAMS in Little Rock, after graduating from Louisiana State University in 2016. Her first night out in Baton Rouge, La., she met her now husband, Steven, also now a medical student and cradle Catholic. 

Lambou grew up attending Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church and School and graduated from Mount St. Mary Academy in 2013. 

After a “God moment” in which her mother met Dr. Lawrence Greiten, a cardiovascular surgeon at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, on a plane, Lambou began shadowing him during surgeries, “I’ve gotten to hold a child’s heart in my hands,” she said. 

She is interested in cardiothoracic surgery, with an emphasis on congenital heart defects, primarily on children. 

When COVID-19 hit the state, she and other medical students banded together to collect PPE materials from local businesses for health care workers. In a month and a half, they collected a little more than 6,500 masks and 46,000 gloves, along with bleach, face shields, gowns and hand sanitizer for 14 hospitals, clinics and prisons in the state. 

“We’re still able to help, and do something to directly help people on the front lines,” she said. 

Despite her busy schedule, she devotes her time to painting, gardening and babysitting foster children.

“A lot of people forget we’re pro-life beyond the womb,” she said of caring for those in need. 

Click for the 15 Catholic young adults who inspire us, 2020 index 

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