Meeting Obama Was Easy for Middle River Teen Facing Other Stress

On any other day, Kiera Lane, 13, might have skipped school to be at Union Memorial Hospital.

But Monday was not any other day—it was the day President Barack Obama visited her science class at Parkville Middle School. 

Presenting the president with a science experiment and participating in a press conference may seem like a bit too much stress for any eighth-grade student. 

But Kiera's calm demeanor masked an even bigger worry: her father Jeremy Lane, 36, was in the hospital.  

According to Kiera’s mother, Kelly Lane, Kiera’s father woke up early Sunday morning complaining of chest pain. 

“He woke up and was feeling uncomfortable, a few hours later he said, ‘I need to go to the hospital,’" she said. "He’s a real ‘man’s man’, you know, not going to see doctors—so when I said I was calling 911 and he just said ‘OK’ I knew he was really sick."

Kiera, a Middle River resident, waited outside for the ambulance that took her father to Franklin Square Hospital on Sunday. He was admitted before being transported to Union Memorial Hospital, where he spent the night after a cardiac catheterization.

She didn't get to see her father before she left for school this morning to meet President Obama. Despite Jeremy's condition, Kelly Lane said she and her husband agreed that such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was too important for their daughter to miss. 

“We’re proud our daughter was part of a program recognized by the president,” Kelly Lane said. "In his speech this afternoon, the  president also touched on stress—and I'm one proud mother that my daughter can focus on her education even through an event like this."

During his visit to the school, Obama addressed on-the-job stress when a student asked about the pressures of being president. The president said every job—including being a student—comes with stress. The only way to deal with it, he said, was to work hard and do your best. 

Along with other students in her class, Kiera worked hard to show the president an experiment about the Chesapeake Bay watershed and demonstrated how middle school students could use video technology to educate elementary school children.

After school, a calm and collected Kiera was part of a press conference and then demonstrated to Patch the experiment she and her classmates had shown the president. 

Kiera and her family are still waiting to hear what caused her father's chest pains.

Kelly Lane said he may end up in a third hospital—Johns Hopkins—where doctors would take a cardiac biopsy to determine a cause of his chest pain.

“He’s OK now, and in stable condition," said Kelly Lane. "But as soon as we leave here we’re going to see her father.”