C. S. Mott Children's Hospital
Stories
For this happy family, prenatal diagnosis and treatment
of their son’s tumor and blocked airway lead to a happy outcome
Every mother remembers the moment when she first holds her baby. For Sharon Kramer that moment came three weeks after the birth of her second child, Benjamin. Little Benjamin, entered the world at 36 weeks, on June 29, 2005, weighing 6 pounds, 10 ounces. He was a 6-pound baby with a 10-ounce tumor on his neck. The tumor was discovered during a 26-week ultrasound. That early discovery allowed Benjamin and Sharon to get the care they needed to save his life. Two days after his birth, the tumor was removed. For the next three weeks he was connected to several invasive lines (hydration, medication, etc.), and he needed to stay very still while his airway healed. On July 19, three weeks after his arrival, Sharon held him for the first time. She credits the University of Michigan Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Center, and especially the center’s director, George Mychaliska, M.D., with saving Benjamin’s life. Read the whole strory
After Seth Bergman was thrown from his ATV, U-M helped him get back to living
For many of us, snow days were the sources of some of our best childhood memories. For Seth Bergman and his family, January 11, 2006, was a snow day they definitely will not soon forget.
Adventurous 12-year-old Seth couldn’t wait to get out into the snow that day. He went riding on his family’s three-wheeler, doing donuts on the ice and having a good time. But out on a fresh layer of snow, Seth got in trouble and was thrown from the vehicle. Read the whole story.
For the Brown family, Mott’s professionals saved not only a life but the family’s spirit as well
“Your daughter has a brain tumor.” No parent is prepared to hear those words, and Kathy Brown remembers the day in 2002 when she and her husband, Randy, got the diagnosis that their four-year-old daughter, Kendra, had brain cancer. Kathy and Randy Brown credit the University of Michigan Health System with saving their daughter’s life. “We weren’t sure if we’d ever be going home with her,” recalls Kathy. “They gave us our daughter back.” Read the whole story.
All Heart: Meet Tommy, the charming 5-year-old who just happens to have been born with half a heart.
The children are referred to as having “half a heart.” The correct term for their illness is hard for some people to remember: hypoplastic left heart syndrome — or HLHS. Colleen Schomaker and her family know all the words by heart.
“I was about 22 weeks pregnant,” recalls Colleen. She had gone to her hospital for a routine ultrasound and found out that the baby she was carrying probably had HLHS, a congenital heart disease that would be fatal if left untreated. This path to discovery is a common occurrence for women carrying a baby with HLHS. Read the whole story.
Previous Stories
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