General

Seth Wayne is a Seattle Children’s athletic trainer at Evergreen High School.

Did you know March is National Athletic Training Month? In recognition of Seattle Children’s incredible athletic trainers, we’re highlighting the tremendous role they play in helping athletes thrive on and off the field.

Across the greater Puget Sound region, nearly 50 athletic trainers from Seattle Children’s are embedded in 42 schools from Tacoma to Woodinville. They are with athletes at least five days a week – on the sidelines at games when most injuries occur, as well as in the gym or training facilities during practice. They provide sport-specific training and conditioning programs, as well as injury care for high school athletes. Athletic trainers help care for athletes from a wide array of sports, including football, soccer, lacrosse, gymnastics, wrestling, basketball, baseball, softball, track and field, tennis, golf, swimming, volleyball, cross country and roller derby. From helping tape ankles to suggesting specific exercises to decrease the risk of injury to communicating with orthopedic providers when catastrophic injuries occur, athletic trainers help support young athletes.

“We are the eyes, hands and ears of the care team and a liaison between the providers and patient,” said Seth Wayne, a Seattle Children’s athletic trainer at Evergreen High School.

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Dr. Todd Blumberg is the program director of Seattle Children’s Child and Young Adult Hip Preservation Program.

Dr. Todd Blumberg, program director of Seattle Children’s Child and Young Adult Hip Preservation Program, has helped build a new program that is truly one-of-a-kind in the Pacific Northwest. The program offers comprehensive and complete care for children, teens and young adults with a wide range of hip conditions.

Blumberg was born and raised in Texas. He graduated from medical school at Baylor College of Medicine. He completed his orthopedic surgery training at the University of Washington and then went on to complete pediatric orthopedic fellowship training at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, with additional fellowship training in hip preservation surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital.

We sat down with Blumberg to learn more about the program and his vision for helping children with hip issues live their most fulfilling life possible.

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Sarita Wall is the vice chair of the Black and African Heritage Network

Sarita Wall started working at Seattle Children’s in summer 2019, and she knew immediately that she wanted to volunteer at her new organization to get involved with her new work community.

“I wanted to do something meaningful and be around people who share some of the same experiences and who look like me,” said Wall, who is an executive assistant at the Neurosciences Center.

She joined the Black and African Heritage Network and met the leaders of that inclusion network, or employee resource group, including Shakema Magee, the chair of the group. Wall said BAHN was “very involved in the Black community within Seattle Children’s,” which she appreciated.

Wall is now the vice chair of BAHN. Among other activities, BAHN coordinates the Annual Walk Run for Sickle Cell, which raises awareness and educates people about the disease. It also helps create a sense of community around sickle cell. The event was canceled for the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Last year, if you had told Dr. Mignon Loh that she would soon become the leader of cancer care and research at Seattle Children’s, no one would have been more surprised than her. As chief of pediatric oncology at the University of California, San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospitals, she was caring for children with cancer and leading breakthrough research at one of the world’s most renowned medical institutions. Then Seattle Children’s contacted her and outlined our vision – and we were thrilled that it immediately caught her attention.

“I wasn’t looking to leave UCSF, but I was intrigued because Seattle Children’s was thinking big,” Loh said. “They were committed to building innovative facilities to augment their research footprint, they wanted to reimagine wet and dry bench research as part of their alliance with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, and they were clearly on a mission to improve cancer and blood diseases care for children worldwide. The opportunity was too good to pass up.”

We’re ecstatic that Loh joined Seattle Children’s in December, and is leading the Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and directing the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. She is also division chief of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy at the University of Washington School of Medicine and heads the Section of Pediatric Oncology at Fred Hutch.

“Seattle Children’s has an amazing history, and their immunotherapy work is groundbreaking,” Loh said. “I’m excited to build on that and make an even bigger difference for the kids who are afflicted with blood diseases and cancers who need better treatments and cures.” Read full post »

This wintry snow illustration was designed by Helena in a “Dessert and Draw” virtual evening group designed for cancer care teen patients and siblings, 13-years-old and older. The purpose of the Zoom sessions is to present a theme to participants once a month and bring together teen siblings, who may live anywhere in the country.

As part of the Child Life Department, art and music therapy at Seattle Children’s introduces different techniques to promote patients’ physical and mental health, either at patients’ bedside to assist in the art-making process or virtually in smaller groups and one-to-one sessions.

Through a variety of creative materials and techniques, which can include drawing, painting, clay and collage, patients learn about their relationship with art with support from art therapists to help them express themselves, process emotions and connect with loved ones from afar.

Seattle Children’s art therapist, Helena Hillinga Haas, leads many of these individual and virtual group sessions and explains how the process can help develop autonomy, strength and resilience for children and teenagers coping with symptoms, anxiety and traumatic experiences. Read full post »

Dr. Maneesh Batra’s experience with babies in low-resource countries fed his passion to focus on neonatal care and public health.

Dr. Maneesh Batra, the new interim chief of neonatology at Seattle Children’s, first became interested in neonatology when he was working as a resident in Ugandan hospitals in 2002. He witnessed the incredible sorrow on the faces of mothers whose babies were failing to thrive.

“It was striking to me how much the providers and the families wanted to give those babies hope,” Batra said. “The moms were bringing their babies there to give them a chance at survival, and most of them were dying. It felt really wrong and unfair.”

When Batra returned to the U.S., he found it hard to shake those images from his mind. It ultimately led him to converge two of his interests — neonatal care and global health — with the mission of helping improve access to care for all babies everywhere.

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Dr. Novotny, right, director of Seattle Children’s Epilepsy Program, discusses the latest developments in epilepsy (file photo)

New research and treatments for epilepsy have come a long way in the last several years. In this Q&A, we talk with Dr. Edward “Rusty” Novotny, director of Seattle Children’s Epilepsy Program and professor of neurology and pediatrics at the University of Washington. As the director of one of the largest epilepsy programs in the nation and the program exclusively dedicated to pediatrics in the Northwest accredited level 4 by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers, Dr. Novotny answers questions about advances in epilepsy treatment.

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Caleb’s family moved to three different states searching for experts who could provide the best care for his life-threatening, chronic intestinal disorder. Now Caleb is 10 and loves playing basketball, badminton and video games. He still experiences ups and downs on his medical journey – but thanks to community support, Caleb’s care team helps him thrive at every age and developmental stage. During the Yes campaign, more than 70 patients and their families served as ambassadors, sharing their experiences to inspire our community.

Seattle Children’s launched its $1 billion fundraising initiative,  It Starts With Yes: The Campaign For Seattle Children’s  to transform childhood health and change the odds for all kid-kind.

At the end of 2021, the Yes campaign closed with greater success than expected, surpassing its initial goal of $1 billion, raising $1.4 billion. Last year alone, donors contributed more than $223.7 million – more than any year in Seattle Children’s fundraising history. Read full post »

Seattle Children’s is expanding the bronchopulmonary dysplasia program

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia is a long-lasting form of lung disease affecting babies born prematurely. Their lungs are not fully formed and are sometimes damaged, and they need extra oxygen through a tube placed into their nose or more support to survive, grow and develop.

BPD also is called chronic lung disease of prematurity. The number of newborns with BPD has risen as more and more babies survive being born many weeks before their due date. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 newborns develop BPD in the United States each year.

In this Q&A, Dr. Gregory Redding,  division chief of the Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine Division at Seattle Children’s and professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington, shares details on Seattle Children’s expanding Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia Program.

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Building Care will expand the hospital’s clinical space and allow it to treat more patients to meet the growing demand for its services in the region.
ZGF Architects

American Builders Quarterly magazine recently featured Mandy Hansen, senior director of planning, design, and construction, and her work on Seattle Children’s main campus expansion in a story titled: “Mandy Hansen Builds for a Cause.”  Read full post »