Little Miracles

Since 1912 Children's Hospital & Research Center has been providing specialized healthcare for the children of Northern California. This outstanding medical center has performed "Little Miracles" on thousands of children from all backgrounds. 

Here are some stories of our "Little Miracles":

Ciara Chow

It was October 2000, Ciara was six months old and had been a perfectly healthy baby girl - up until then. One day she woke up with a 104 + fever that Tylenol or Motrin wouldn't lower, a transient rash on her tummy, swollen pink hands and bloodshot eyes. During that day she vomited several times and refused her bottle. That night, upon her arrival at the emergency room at a local regional hospital, several diagnosis from meningitis to the flu were discussed. They admitted Ciara that night, kept her for 4 days, hydrated her and ran a myriad of tests. On the last day of her stay there, her fever finally began to decline somewhat and her physical symptoms began to slowly disappear.  Clinically she looked worse according to her daily lab work.

Our pediatricians and the hospital could not figure it out. So, she was discharged to go home but continued to have daily blood tests, which began to indicate a consistent rising platelet count. She was seen by a pediatric oncologist at the regional hospital who speculated it could be leukemia, spinal column tumors or juvenile rheumatoid arthritis - none of which he seemed to have much conviction in. It was a mystery to them and they said it could very well just be a strange virus that seemed to be going away on its own.

On the 9th day of her illness, at home, Ciara continued to be lethargic, ran a low-grade fever of 102.  I frantically researched her symptoms on the internet and it became very apparent that her daily increasing platelet count could cause an aneurysm or perhaps even a stroke.  At one point Ciara's platelet count was three times the normal level.

My research into her symptoms pointed to something called "Kawasaki Disease".  The online information said this required an echocardiogram to evaluate the child’s heart and then gamma globulin therapy had to be administered before the 10th day from the onset of the fever to prevent permanent heart damage.   I learned that in our area, the only place for a child to receive an echocardiogram was Children’s Hospital Oakland.   

We drove Ciara straight to Children's Hospital where the echocardiogram immediately determined it was Kawasaki's Disease.  We were within 12 hours of the timeframe they could administer the gamma globulin to save Ciara's heart. Dr. Saba, Ciara's cardiologist at Children's Hospital, was simply wonderful.  I believe he and the staff at Children's Hospital kept our daughter's heart as lovely and perfect as it was before and continues to be.  Since our initial stay at Children’s Hospital, Ciara has had a few follow-up visits with Dr. Saba.  Her heart was not damaged thanks to their quick and decisive action.  Ciara is able to run, and jump and play as if she had never had Kawasaki's Disease. We will be forever grateful to Children’s Hospital for making this possible.

Cali Brownstein

Until my daughter Cali was born, I had not really given much thought as to what goes on every day in a hospital. And by that I mean not really appreciated the hard work and dedication of doctors and nurses that save lives and try to make things better every day. But now I had a newborn with some serious health issues and that forced me to face a scarier side of life.

Cali was born with a heart defect called coarctation of the aorta. In simple terms, she had a kink in her aorta that was obstructing blood flow to her lower body.  It can be compared to an older person with a clogged artery. As time goes by and if left untreated, the situation worsens and the results can be disastrous.

We found out about this defect during an ultrasound when I was halfway through my pregnancy.  What’s amazing is the technology that allows us to find problems and address them much earlier.  At the time of the ultrasound, Cali's aorta was smaller than the prong of a fork and they had to look through my body to look through hers. 

But technology has its limits.  Though the ultrasound picked up the heart defect, there were other defects that weren’t apparent until after Cali’s birth.  In the delivery room, the nurses showed her to me briefly before they took her away to intensive care.  She looked so tiny; she only weighed four pounds.

While I was recovering from my c-section, my husband Paul came in with Polaroids and a huge smile.  “Isn’t she beautiful?” He showed me the pictures.  I couldn’t believe it.  Cali was so bruised and swollen, it looked as if she had been in a boxing match.  A geneticist was brought in to consult on some of the doctors’ concerns about Cali.  “Her muscle tone is not good,” she said.  “It’s low, floppy.  If you hold her up she’ll hang like a rag dog.  We’ll do some tests.” The tests the geneticist ran came back normal.  They didn’t know what Cali had, but clearly something was wrong.

When she was three weeks old, she finally opened her eyes for the first time.  She couldn’t open them all the way; they were tiny slits.  “She has ptosis of the eyes,” the geneticist told us, “droopy eyelids.”  Another thing to be corrected surgically.

We took Cali to a neurologist when she was three months old.  He said all her abnormalities – the heart defect, the ptosis of the eyes, the low tone – all suggested a genetic syndrome, although he didn’t have a name for it.  The low tone worried me the most.  She just didn’t move much and she never vocalized or made cooing sounds like other babies her age.  I once went to get her from a nap and noticed she had edged sideways.  I called my mother-in-law in to see.  “Look!  She moved!”  It was the first time she had changed position in her crib.  She was four months old.

By the time Cali was five months old, we had moved to California and were lining up new doctors and preparing for heart surgery.  Cali’s new cardiologist, neurologist, geneticist and surgeon were all at Children’s Hospital Oakland.  We first met Cali’s heart surgeon about a week before her surgery.  He addressed all of our concerns, was confident and had a good bedside manner, a nice change from most of the doctors we had encountered in New York.

The surgery went perfectly and we went to see Cali in the recovery room.  It was a little overwhelming with doctors, nurses and residents all coming over to read her chart and check on her.  But the flip side to that was that there was a very concerned staff totally devoted to our child, and to all the other kids in the intensive care unit as well.  That’s probably the biggest thing that stands out in our minds about our experience at CHO.  Everyone we encountered, from doctors to nurses to support staff to the volunteer who knitted us a baby blanket, was on board and gave us a comfort level that made going through something like this as easy as can be expected under the circumstances.

So by the time Cali’s eye surgery rolled around, we were definitely more comfortable with the whole process and being at Children’s Hospital Oakland.  As they did before, the hospital gave us a tour of where we needed to be on the day of surgery and gave us a demonstration on a baby doll so we knew what to expect while Cali was in surgery.  Thankfully, this operation also went without a hitch.  When we got home later that night we were thrilled to see that Cali’s eyes, once only slits, were now open enough so that she would no longer have to tilt her head back to see.  And the very next day, she started babbling for the first time.  She was eleven months old.

After going through what we did that first year, it made me appreciate how fortunate we are to have a hospital devoted to children with incredible doctors and nurses right here in our back yard.  So when I found out about the Rowan gala that benefits the hospital, I was thrilled to go and lend support.

Cali is now a first grader who is reading and writing and learning and playing right along with her peers. That scary first year is a distant memory. As our wonderful neurologist at CHO advised us, “Don’t put limits on these kids and you’ll be amazed at how far they’ll go.”

Lindsay Keller

Lindsay Keller was a very healthy 5 year-old girl. She had no symptoms of any sickness but at her annual well child check up tests had come back with some abnormalities. She had an unusually high number of red blood cells in her urine. After rechecking her urine several times we were referred to Dr. Bothelo, a nephrologist at Children's Hospital Oakland.

We found the care at Children's Hospital to be amazing; from the check in receptionist, to the nuclear medicine technician who had the daunting task of talking Lindsay into taking radioactive medicine, to the warm and gentle doctor and staff. Throughout the entire process of diagnosis and treatment, Lindsay was never intimidated.  We always felt that she was in the best hands possible.

It turned out that Lindsay has a rare genetic abnormality called "familial hematuria".  This means that because of her DNA, she will always urinate blood.  There are no health ramifications from this condition; she just needs to get checked yearly. Whew!  We are so thankful to Children’s Hospital Oakland and the wonderful care and caring they provided for my daughter and our family.

Gregory Warrington

My nephew, Gregory, was born in 2000 with multiple skeletal deformities and internal problems. Within hours of being born to my sister, Carol, Gregory became a life-long patient of Children's Hospital Oakland. He underwent several life-saving surgeries during the first few weeks of his life and endured approximately 20 more procedures and operations in the following years to come. His medical and nursing team includes specialties from head-to-toe; gastrointestinal, neurosurgical, cardiology, orthopedics, urology, Nephrology, Rehabilitation, Pulmonology, critical care, emergency, and pastoral care. It is because of these Children's Hospital experts that Gregory has sustained a normal, happy, and active life. He is now in kindergarten, walking with crutches, and living the life of a 5-year old. Thank you Children's Hospital Oakland!

Oliver Northing

Our second child, Oliver was born on November 15th 2002, a full-term 8lb baby.  When Oliver was seven days old things started to change.  He became sleepy and lethargic during the day and by 1 a.m., he refused to nurse at all and appeared very listless.  We took Oliver to John Muir ER at 3a.m., where the nurses and doctors worked with incredible urgency to diagnose why he was finding it so difficult to breathe.  His blood work showed that he had a very high level of carbon dioxide in his blood.  After consulting with Children’s Hospital and further tests at John Muir, we were told that Oliver had two major heart defects (a coarctation or blockage of the aorta and a ventricular septal defect).  The coarctation was immediately life threatening for him.  He was given medication to prevent his fetal duct from closing further, thereby allowing some oxygen to his lower body and was stabilized. 

Oliver was transferred to the ICN at Oakland Children’s Hospital immediately to receive the care he needed.  As we watched our little seven-day-old baby head off alone in the ambulance, we seriously questioned whether we would ever see him alive again.  This is where we met Dr. Avasarala and he was truly wonderful!  He spent considerable time providing us with a detailed explanation of Oliver’s condition, plans for surgery, and the potential long-term implications of the condition. 

When Oliver was 12 days old, he underwent eight hours of open-heart surgery to correct his heart defects.  Dr. Hanley performed what he described as a technically challenging surgery, with Dr. Gulati assisting.  Dr. Hanley successfully repaired Oliver’s coarctation, patched the ventricular septal defect and also a third problem, an atrial septal defect, that was discovered during surgery.  Oliver recovered incredibly quickly and was soon on the road to recovery.

Oliver is now three and a half, and is like any other boy of his age.  In fact he has more energy and spirit than most.  We still visit Dr. Avarasala every six months so that Oliver’s heart can be monitored as he grows.  Recently, he underwent a catheterization procedure that showed that there is no further surgery or intervention required at this time. This is a fabulous outcome for Oliver and a wonderful gift for us to have such a healthy child.

We are so grateful and thankful for the wonderful doctors and nurses at Children’s Hospital for making this possible for our family.

Morgan Mahre

My 7-year-old daughter Morgan was home with what I thought was the flu.  My son had been home with the flu for 5 days, so I thought Morgan was also coming down with the same illness.  The strange thing about Morgan was that she was excessively thirsty and abnormally tired.  She was looking emaciated.  Something didn’t seem quite right to me so I called our pediatrician.