The Mom’s Guide to Mosquitoes

With Zika, West Nile and other mosquito-borne illnesses dominating headlines around the world, fear and worry about the tiny creatures has grown. We asked Stanford Medicine Children’s Health doctors and local public health experts to share what pregnant women and parents really need to know about these diseases and if they had any tips for how parents can keep their families safe this summer.

Nurse Linda Ritter Receives Prestigious Award for Excellence

Recently, nurse.com honored Linda Ritter, RN, as winner of the 2014 California’s Giving Excellence Meaning (GEM) Award in the category of Clinical Nursing, Inpatient. Ritter, a longtime nurse in the Bass Childhood Cancer Center at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, was noted by the organization for her leadership in improving palliative care education for the entire unit.

Health care hero for at-risk young people

Seth Ammerman, MD, medical director of Mobile Adolescent Health Services at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, has received a prestigious public service award for his role in providing free, comprehensive health-care services to uninsured and homeless youth through the hospital’s Teen Health Van.

Nurses Lead the Way

Today nurses are the front-line providers who monitor and meet patient needs; serve as patient and family advocates, and provide leadership in all aspects of health care. And Packard Children’s is leading the way in creating opportunities for nurses to excel.

School Nurses Make the Grade

School nurses can certainly help kids feel better. But can they also help kids do better in school? Packard Children’s studied the effects of putting health care back into schools, and found that—not surprisingly—better health leads to better grades.

From the Heart

Karina Gomez’s daughter, Kassaundra, was born in 2002 with a rare and life-threatening cardiac abnormality. At just 2 days old, Packard heart surgeons attached a tiny pacemaker to one of the two lower chambers, or ventricles, of her heart. Five months later, it was replaced it with a more advanced device wired to both ventricles.

Balancing Care with Busy Boyhood

It’s been more than seven years since Cole Rossi was cured of a rare brain cancer. The tumor and therapy left him with low levels of growth hormone, double vision, and physical weakness. He remains on hormone treatment and gets MRIs twice a year. He sees an oncologist every six months and a neurologist every other year.

Growing for Tomorrow

Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital is embarking on a transformative expansion project. Growth will allow Packard to continue to offer the most advanced cures, treatments, and technologies available, performed by the best minds in pediatric and obstetric medicine, within a state-of-the-art facility designed to meet the special needs of children and families.

Rooting for Luke

Ongoing chemotherapy means that 8-year-old Luke O’Moore of Los Gatos cannot take part in his beloved BMX races. So members of the northern California BMX community came together to organize an exciting pro-am racing series and fundraiser in his honor.

A Rocky Start

Katie Jo Shuman pitches for her school’s softball team, and loves basketball and soccer. She also has an artistic, entrepreneurial streak: One of her hobbies is designing and selling jewelry for good causes.

Appetite for Life

Caitlin Burns was born with an immune deficiency and pseudo-obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract, a life-threatening condition that prevents the normal movement of food through her intestines. Packard specialists have been caring for her since she was an infant.

Staff Get on Board for Commuter Alternatives

To reduce traffic congestion and encourage alternative modes of transportation, all employees of Packard Children’s were provided with Caltrain GO Passes at the beginning of the year. The Go Passes allow staff to ride Caltrain for free—encouraging the use of mass transportation for their commute to and from work. So far, more than 1,000 employees have taken part in the program and are riding the rails to cut back on commuter driving.

Three Days, Three Hearts

In an extremely rare three-day series of transplants in May, three young adults received new hearts at the Children’s Heart Center at Packard Children’s, including an extraordinarily uncommon double-organ heart and liver transplant.

A Little Goes a Long Way

Sustainability is a driving force behind the hospital expansion project, which incorporates water-efficient systems, a 110,000-gallon cistern to store rainwater, and the use of drought-tolerant plants, such as native grasses, shrubs, and trees. The new expanses of green space and permeable paving will handle storm runoff better than paved areas.

Transforming Hospital Design

Several aspects of the Packard expansion project have been improved by the first-hand participation of physicians, nurses, multidisciplinary care teams, and parents. Their input and feedback has led to a number of important changes—before construction even begins.

Two Separate Little Girls

Angelina and Angelica Sabuco are running around, making new friends, and looking forward to their 3rd birthday party in August—their first as two separate little girls. “That is a great birthday gift!” said their mother Ginady Sabuco. “They love to run around, go out, and play with other children now.” It’s hard to believe that a short while ago, these same two girls were struggling to even walk and faced an uncertain future.

How Does the Garden Grow?

For the children and expectant mothers who come to Packard Children’s, the new gardens will be a retreat where they can savor the sights, smells, and sounds of nature. The hospital is adding more than three acres of greenery, connecting the new facility to the existing one while providing a backdrop of calmness and serenity.

Setting Down New Roots

Trees on the site of the Packard Children’s Hospital expansion have been boxed and stored, and are ready to be replanted once the project is complete. Heritage trees have been preserved; 12 protected oaks and redwoods have been carefully prepared and put in safekeeping so they can be transplanted later, and four have already been relocated to new sites on the university campus to provide better growing conditions.

Can You Dig It?

Some of the most important components that keep Packard Children’s running smoothly lie beneath the surface. The Welch Road Utility Project involves constructing and replacing utility services, such as water lines and electrical conduits, and improving the infrastructure for information technology along—and below—Welch Road.