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tee traveled to AORN chapters around the state to talk about smoke and build a statewide coalition, which they called the Smoke Busters. On New Year's Eve 2019, Ms. Ulmer's phone rang at 10 p.m. It was Senator Butler call- ing to say she would sponsor a smoke evacu- ation bill. Ms. Ulmer hung up the phone, stunned by the sena- tor's out-of-the-blue support. With Senator Butler now on board, the Georgia Smoke Busters were about to get a crash course in lobbying and lawmaking. A few months later, a smoke evacuation bill began to take shape in the Georgia General Assembly. A hearing was held, but then the pan- demic shut down the legislature. When lawmakers reconvened in the summer, Senator Butler intro- duced and helped pass a resolution that required the Senate to convene a smoke study committee, which held meetings each month in the fall. Senator Butler included Ms. Ulmer and the legislative com- mittee in developing the agendas aimed at educat- ing the legislators on the hazards of surgical smoke. Ms. Ulmer says she was working 30 to 40 hours a week on the legislation effort throughout 2020. She and legislative committee members traveled to AORN chapters around the state to drum up sup- port and encourage perioperative nurses to con- tact their local legislators. It was during that mas- sive networking effort that Ms. Hohn's story came to light. Jennifer Pennock, AORN's senior director of government affairs, was working with the Georgia team on their lobbying efforts. She asked Ms. Hohn to testify before the senate committee by writing a letter that could be read to its members. "I wrote what I thought was my first draft, and video-called with the smoke evacuation team to read it," says Ms. Hohn. "Afterward, everybody was silent. Then one person finally said, 'You're incredibly brave. Don't change anything. We want you to be the first presenter to the committee because your message is so powerful.'" Some of the smoke team members were shocked that Ms. Hohn, who was strug- gling in the midst of her cancer battle, was up to presenting. "I wanted to make a difference," she says. "I didn't think I was going to live, and didn't want to die without being heard." Says Ms. Ulmer, "It was unbelievable to hear what she went through, and that her doctor said she was sick because she breathed in surgical smoke for all those years. It had a huge impact on us." A week later, Ms. Hohn videoconferenced into the Senate committee hearing to read her letter, which contained many powerful messages. An excerpt: I got a call that rocked my world. My deepest fears were confirmed — I had lung cancer. I was so unprepared for this devastation that it felt like a death sentence, a nightmare I couldn't wake up from. How could this happen to me? When she finished, the committee members remained silent. Finally, Senator Butler looked up and said, "I don't know what to say. Is there any- thing we can do for you? If there is, please reach out to my office." Ms. Hohn's testimony had a significant impact on the committee, but the smoke evacuation team also assembled supportive testimonials from other nurs- es, doctors and a scrub tech, as well as Richard Lamphier, president of the board of directors of the Georgia Nurses Association. Through a friend in Arizona, Ms. Ulmer facilitated prerecorded video testimony from Anthony Hedley, MD, FACS, a Phoenix-based orthopedic surgeon profiled in 2 4 • O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A R C H 2 0 2 1 SEEING IS BELIEVING During Senate committee meetings, Ms. Ulmer and colleagues acti- vated an electrosurgery pencil in this plastic box to show how much smoke it produced.