Children's Hospital Colorado

As a respiratory therapist, Meliza has seen firsthand the impact she can have on patients and families. Now, as a clinical manager and a leader in our Pediatric Respiratory Therapy Fellowship, she’s making an impact on our team members by helping fellow respiratory therapists gain the skills and training they need to feel confident caring for kids. For Meliza, moving from direct patient care to a leadership role has been a full-circle moment. And she wouldn’t want to do it anywhere else. “Here, it’s different. It’s fun. It’s engaging,” Meliza says. "And if at the end of the day, we did something right to help our patients get home and get better, that’s awesome.” If you’re a respiratory therapist who is passionate about working with kids, there’s a place for you at Children’s Colorado. Learn more about how we can help you transition to pediatric practice: https://lnkd.in/g-8D_JfG

Dr. Emily Skeen, a pediatric pulmonologist at Children’s Colorado, set out with her colleagues to discover the relationship between a child’s living environment and their likelihood of developing exacerbation-prone asthma. See what her team discovered.

There are nearly 4.7 million nurses in the U.S., yet less than 12% of people in the profession are males. While the number of men in nursing careers has expanded in recent years, there's still a long way to go to increase their representation in the field. We recently welcomed 80 middle school boys from Denver Public Schools' Spark Early Career Exploration Program to our hospital on the Anschutz Medical Campus to learn more about career opportunities in healthcare. Through hands-on workshops, panel discussions and tours of some clinical areas, these students got a firsthand look at what it’s like to work here — and picked up some new skills along the way. We hope the experience “sparked” an interest in healthcare for these students! Interested in learning more about building your own healthcare career at Children’s Colorado? Learn more about what we offer: https://bit.ly/3DXgG4E

As a child life specialist, Amanda has handed out countless fleece hearts to moms and caregivers in our NICU. But one mother cemented in her mind how impactful they can be. The mom was young when she gave birth, and her baby was born very prematurely. She didn’t live close and couldn’t stay in the NICU all the time. So before she left she’d always place a fleece heart with her baby, which made it OK, in her mind, to go home. It helped her sleep better knowing she did something for her baby. “That proved to me that families appreciate this bonding opportunity and the sentiment behind it,” Amanda says. The hearts are more than just cute mementos. Moms and caregivers wear the hearts against their skin so it picks up their scent. When placed in the baby’s isolette, the scent provides the baby with the familiarity of their loved one. Research also shows a parent’s scent can lower a baby’s heart rate and help them remain calm during care. This practice is really helpful for babies who are too small or medically unstable for parents to hold or for parents who can’t stay in the NICU all the time. That was the case for Ashley, whose twin boys, Ezra and Ezekiel, were born at 27 weeks gestation with multiple medical complications. “We aren’t the doctors, surgeons or specialists working on their bodies to help them, but as parents, doing little things makes a huge difference in the end,” Ashley says. “From day one, we were giving them the best chance possible to be super successful, and that comes from bonding with your family. In our case, it was smelling scents from mom, dad and brother.” Ashley and her husband, Tyler, not only gave the hearts to the twins, but then passed them from brother to brother when they were separated. Ashley says the boys sleep better and breathe more calmly when they have their brother’s scent close by. Ezra and Ezekiel will be going home soon, after six months of passing the fleece hearts back and forth in the NICU. In addition to our child life specialists, our dedicated volunteers make this bonding possible. Jeanne, a devoted quilter and mother herself, has made more than 700 hearts and has another 200 on the way. “They are hugs from my heart to theirs,” Jeanne says. Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms and caregivers who give parts of themselves to help their kids thrive. #MothersDay #HereItsDifferent

We all know someone who is affected by the youth mental health crisis. Fortunately, we can all do something to help. From fundraising to attending events to advocating your legislators to simply sharing our experts’ advice, there’s something for everyone. #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth

Congratulations to Suzy Jaeger, who was named one of the top chief experience officers by Becker’s Healthcare. Learn about her role at Children’s Colorado.

We are starting our week at the Colorado Respiratory Care Society State Conference! Stop by our booth to talk to our team about what it's like to be a pediatric respiratory therapist at Children's Colorado. Learn more about our career opportunities: https://bit.ly/3DXgG4E #RespiratoryTherapist #PediatricHealthcare

Each year, Meg fractures between 15 and 20 bones. Not because she’s into exhilarating sports or dangerous hobbies, but because she has a genetic condition. Doctors diagnosed Meg before birth with osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease, which makes her bones softer and easily fractured. During her pregnancy, doctors told Meg’s mom Leslie that Meg wouldn’t be born alive. But against all odds, Meg was born with nine broken bones and a fiery personality to take on the world. After a 12-day NICU stay, Meg established care with our experts and started bone infusions at 2 months old. Since then, she’s had 13 surgeries to put rods in her arms and legs that work as internal splints as she grows. “All of our friends have second homes in the mountains, and we have one in Aurora,” Leslie jokes. Meg’s bones are still very fragile, so she receives regular care from her pediatrician, one of our geneticists, Dr. Ellen Roy Elias, and other experts across our departments “Meg is an incredibly bright, talented and feisty 6th grader who has never let anything hold her back, despite her complex medical issues,” says Dr. Elias. “She is the perfect example of how impossible it is to predict the future in babies born with osteogenesis imperfecta. Her parents’ wish was for her to always attempt activities to allow her to have as normal a childhood as possible and to clearly make decisions supporting her happiness and quality of life.” And Meg is no stranger to our emergency department, especially since the smallest movement could result in a break. Last summer alone, Meg broke seven bones. But that didn’t stop her from participating in nearly every sport at her wheelchair sports camp. Regardless of her diagnosis, Meg doesn’t let anything hold her back. Now as a bustling sixth grader, Meg is a vocal major at Denver School of the Arts and once sang the national anthem at a Denver Nuggets game. This Wishbone Day, which raises awareness for osteogenesis imperfecta, Meg wants kids like her to know that your condition doesn’t limit your potential to shine. “Don't give up on what you want to do,” says Meg. “It may be hard, it may be scary, people may not believe in you, but you just can’t give up.”

Jonnie faced a lot early in his life — a heart murmur, multiple aneurysms and a heart condition that caused a hole in his heart. He had surgery to fix the hole in his heart, but optimal health still eluded him. “We didn’t understand why he was facing all these challenges,” says Drew, Jonnie’s dad. After a couple years of missing growth and health milestones, someone suggested genetic testing for Jonnie. Suddenly, everything made a lot more sense. Genetic testing revealed that Jonnie had multisystem smooth muscle dysfunction syndrome (MSMDS), an extremely rare disease that only about 50 people in the world have. Geneticists told Drew and Rachael that they should go see Dr. Kathyrn Chatfield at Children’s Hospital Colorado immediately. Dr. Chatfield is a genetic pediatric cardiologist and has treated all the cases of MSMDS that have come to Children’s Colorado. “It changed our life and it changed Jonnie’s life,” says Rachael, Jonnie’s mom. In working with Dr. Chatfield, who Rachael and Drew call, “The Queen,” they no longer guess about which care will help Jonnie. Now, they can proactively plan for his treatment — and the rest of his life.

Nearly 25% of Hispanic and Latinx families visiting Children’s Colorado say Spanish is their first language. SCORE fellows Shannon Acker, MD, and Jose Diaz-Miron, MD, are researching projects that could make it easier to share important health information with people who speak languages other than English. Learn how their work is improving health equity and outcomes for these populations: https://bit.ly/3TSFQdp