Children’s Health | Minnesota Medical Foundation

Give the gift of childhood this holiday season

2011-12-12T21:13:24Z

Play experiences can help children cope with and adjust to illness and hospitalization. Play is one way the Child-Family Life specialists at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital meet the developmental, psychosocial, emotional, and educational needs of their patients.

Child-Family Life staff can use your gifts to purchase the items our patients need most, such as toys, games, and other supplies. Monetary gifts are critical to the scope and vitality of our mission of bringing hope and healing to children and families in our hospital, one at a time, while advancing education, research, and care on behalf of children everywhere.

Your gifts allow children to keep their minds on what children should focus on—play.

Here’s how you can make a difference:

• A gift of $50 can provide four I SPY books used to distract a child during a medical procedure.

• A gift of $100 can provide a tricycle for a child to ride around the hospital.

• A gift of $500 can provide art supplies that many children can use to express themselves.

• A gift of $1,000 can provide video games for kids of all ages.

This holiday season, give the gift of childhood.

Make your gift online today, or for more information, contact Jen Foss at 612-626-5276 or j.foss@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

'Purple Pride' players show their support for maroon and gold

2011-12-12T15:13:45Z

You’ve probably heard about a few of the many ways the Minnesota Vikings are supporting University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital and kids’ health in general. And sometimes you can’t tell who’s benefiting more—the kids or the players.

Besides the team’s monthly visits to the hospital, head coach Leslie Frazier recently announced that players and coaches have sponsored the Minnesota Vikings Adopt A Room in the new hospital, and running back Lorenzo Booker has taken a leading role in promoting the Vikings Fitness Playbook program.

Several other players—including guard Steve Hutchinson and linebackers Chad Greenway and Erin Henderson—have made special contributions of their own to the University and Amplatz Children’s Hospital.

Hutchinson and his wife, Landyn, have graciously hosted several holiday events for kids and their families. In 2007 they sponsored their first Thanksgiving celebration at Amplatz Children’s Hospital, which provided kids with not only a wonderful meal but also a much appreciated distraction from their rooms and treatments. They’ve since added an annual Hutchinson Halloween Huddle and Hutchinson Christmas Party, fully furnished with gifts for the kids.

Steve Hutchinson also has served as the lead celebrity host of our annual Champions for Children Golf Classic since its inception in 2009.

The Hutchinsons will be honored as Imagine Award recipients at WineFest No. 17—A Toast to Children’s Health in May for their outstanding service and support.

Greenway, through his Lead the Way Foundation, will be donating a “locker” in the hospital’s family resource center filled with notebook computers, movies, and video game systems to brighten the days of sick kids and their families during their hospital stay.

And Henderson is establishing the Foundation 50 for Sickle Cell Disease to raise awareness of the disease as well as money for patient assistance and sickle cell research at Amplatz Children’s Hospital. Watch a video about Foundation 50’s partnership with us.

Thank you, Vikings, and skol!

Web Extras

Slideshow

View a photo slideshow of the Vikings players’ involvement with kids at Amplatz Children’s Hospital and in the community.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Never accepting defeat

2011-12-05T17:59:14Z

Florida State coach and family raise awareness and funds for Fanconi anemia research at the U

Jimbo Fisher has a microphone and he’s not afraid to use it.

When the Florida State University football coach and his wife, Candi, learned earlier this year that their youngest son, 6-year-old Ethan, has a rare blood disease called Fanconi anemia, they dealt with the devastating news in private.

Then they decided to use their visibility in the media to raise awareness of the disease, an inherited blood disorder that can affect all systems in the body and leads to bone marrow failure.

The Fishers also established the Kidz1stFund™ to raise money through online donations and T-shirt and hat sales for Fanconi anemia research at the University of Minnesota, a national leader in blood and marrow transplantation, and they are promoting the fund through a campaign called OnaKwest for a Cure. Jimbo Fisher is donating all fees from his public speaking engagements to the Kidz1stFund™ as well.

They’ve already raised more than $400,000 for this work.

“One thing I’ve learned as a football coach is to never accept defeat,” Jimbo Fisher says. “We are in this to win the fight against Fanconi anemia on behalf of all the children who share this struggle with Ethan.”

For decades, Fanconi anemia was thought to be untreatable, but promising advances in medical research have improved the prognosis.

Many of those advances have happened at the University of Minnesota. That’s why the Fisher family’s search for the country’s foremost Fanconi anemia team led them to University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital.

Today most children who have Fanconi anemia will need a transplant of stem cells, derived either from bone marrow or umbilical cord blood, to extend their lives. University of Minnesota physician-scientists performed the world’s first successful bone marrow transplant in 1968 and have been blazing new trails in the field since.

“Through research, improvements are made each year in treating patients with Fanconi anemia — improvements that have changed the survival rate after unrelated donor bone marrow transplant for this disease from less than 30 percent to greater than 80 percent in the last 15 years,” says Margaret MacMillan, M.D., Ethan’s doctor and a leading Fanconi anemia researcher. “But there is much more to do. We will not stop until we have 100 percent survival.”

Determination is just one of the qualities the Fishers liked about MacMillan when they met her. Candi Fisher says MacMillan spent time generously with the family to help them understand what they were facing and what treatment options they had for Ethan.

“One thing that she gave us was hope, and that was something at that moment that we were desperately striving for,” adds Candi Fisher. “It made us feel like this was something we could beat, with her help and with the University of Minnesota. … They have invested so much of themselves in this research, and that made us feel like we weren’t alone.”

The Fishers’ goal for the fundraising and awareness campaign is not a dollar figure. It’s a cure, so that Ethan and other kids with Fanconi anemia may lead full lives.

“We’re just hoping that we could make a difference in some way,” says Candi Fisher.

By Nicole Endres

Visit www.kidz1stfund.com to make a gift to this research.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Celebrating Sue

2011-12-05T17:54:06Z

Endowed chair honors a dedicated advocate for Children’s Cancer Research Fund

Suzanne (Sue) Holmes Hodder thrived on helping others. She was always happy to support her friends and even strangers through projects she believed in — whether it was planning the 1992 Super Bowl or partnering with Lady Bird Johnson to seed Minnesota highway corridors with native wildflowers.

She particularly cherished her volunteer role with Children’s Cancer Research Fund, an organization launched by her close friends Diana and Norm Hageboeck after their daughter Katie died of leukemia in 1979 at age 13.

“Sue was devastated for us. She knew Katie,” says Diana Hageboeck, whose 48-year friendship with Hodder blossomed when Sue was an alumna adviser to Diana’s college sorority. “She was such a part of my support team.”

Before Katie died, she made a special request of her parents: She asked that memorials in her name be donated to a little-known fund at the University called Children’s Cancer Research Fund and that the money she had been saving for a new 10-speed bike be donated to it, too.

The Hageboecks did that and so much more. Hodder was eager to help when they began organizing a grassroots event to raise money through the fund. They wanted to honor Katie’s wishes and spread the word about the worldleading pediatric cancer research happening in their own backyard at the University of Minnesota.

Momentum has only built since 1980, when that first “Dawn of a Dream” raised more than $50,000. Today Children’s Cancer Research Fund has national reach and worldwide impact and has invested more than $60 million in pediatric cancer research exclusively at the University.

“We are amazed and in awe of what it has become over the past 31 years,” Hageboeck says. “We started something that wouldn’t stop! We could not have done it without our many friends and their dedication and enthusiasm.”

Sue Hodder’s enthusiasm will be greatly missed, she adds. Before Hodder died on July 5 of this year, she named Children’s Cancer Research Fund as her memorial fund.

To recognize Hodder’s devotion to the organization, her husband, Bill Hodder, has made an even more powerful gift. With the wholehearted support of their five children, he gave $4 million to create the endowed Suzanne Holmes Hodder Chair in Pediatric Cancer Research and another $1 million for pediatric cancer research to be used over the next few years.

“We all felt we wanted to do something significant in her name,” says Bill Hodder, emphasizing that the family also wanted to honor the Hageboecks by supporting Children’s Cancer Research Fund.

“What we are doing is investing in Diana and Norm and their ‘dream,’” he says. “They have convinced the whole world to fund that dream. They have done a monumental job.”

Sue Hodder was honored posthumously with the 2011 Dream Maker Award at the 31st annual Dawn of a Dream event.

“She loved a celebration,” says Diana Hageboeck, “and we will continue to celebrate her and her dedication to helping others.”

By Nicole Endres

To support innovative pediatric cancer research at the University of Minnesota through Children’s Cancer Research Fund, visit www.childrenscancer.org.

Making strides toward a cure

Many discoveries funded by Children’s Cancer Research Fund have revolutionized the way childhood cancer is treated worldwide, investing in the research areas that will have the most impact in the pursuit of cures and better treatments.

Here are just a few advances Children’s Cancer Research Fund has supported:

The double cord blood transplant — developed at the University of Minnesota — has dramatically increased leukemia survival rates in both children and adults. It is known worldwide as the Minneapolis regimen.
The largest study of childhood cancer survivors, which now number more than 300,000 in the United States alone, found that survivors faced a higher risk of ongoing health issues following their treatment. This finding stresses the importance of long-term follow-up care so that physicians can monitor survivors for early signs of disease — and treat them before they become serious problems — and design new treatment protocols to avoid these issues altogether.
University researchers developed and manufactured a brain tumor vaccine that is now in clinical trials. This novel therapy holds the potential to increase survival rates and produce fewer side effects.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Capturing a world of color and beauty

2011-12-05T16:50:47Z

Many artists begin a portrait with the eyes. Jimmy Reagan, this year’s WineFest artist, is no different.

The eyes in his paintings are arresting. They meet the viewer forthrightly and give a glimpse into each subject’s joys or struggles. But it’s not just their expressiveness that makes them significant. “When you’re somebody with autism, eye contact is really difficult,” explains Jimmy’s mother, Peg Schneeman Reagan.

Jimmy’s intensely vibrant paintings, oil pastels, and colored-pencil drawings — striking portraits of people and animals, colorful landscapes, and café scenes — allow viewers to see the world as he does: “full of color and beauty,” Reagan says.

Discovering a passion

Diagnosed with regressive-onset autism 16 years ago, 18-year-old Jimmy Reagan is coming into his own through art. It’s a gift that runs in the family; a great-grandmother was an artist at one of St. Paul’s daily newspapers in the 1920s, and a great uncle, George Schneeman, was a celebrated Modernist painter in New York.

But it wasn’t until four years ago that Jimmy, his parents, and four siblings discovered his aptitude and his passion for art. His tutor and a friend, a visual artist and teacher, recognized and helped to cultivate Jimmy’s artistic talent.

One of his paintings was selected as the signature artwork for WineFest No. 17 — A Toast to Children’s Health, a benefit for children’s health research, education, and care at the University of Minnesota, and will be a high-profile item in the event’s live auction.

The family’s open, light-filled home in Mendota Heights is Jimmy’s studio; he paints next to a window overlooking the garden. Influenced by both Cubism and Impressionism — particularly by the post-Impressionist work of Vincent van Gogh — he’s at work daily, rendering riveting images in bold, complementary hues.

Connecting through art

Too often, Peg Reagan says, the talents of people with autism go unrealized. While Jimmy’s IQ is normal, autism seriously compromises his speech and social skills. “Language is really frustrating for Jim. He realized [his art] is something people like, and he didn’t have to use his words.”

Where language has failed him, drawing and painting are allowing Jimmy to communicate with a receptive and growing audience of art lovers, many of whom come to his work without knowing that he’s autistic.

“Physically, he’s better than he’s been in years,” says his mom, who describes Jimmy’s work as cathartic for his family as well. That there’s an eager audience for it in the Twin Cities and that it’s raising money for children’s health? All the better, says Reagan, who is a longtime supporter of the University’s work in pediatrics.

As his captivating vision of the world and the work in which he shares it earn wider acclaim, Jimmy Reagan is helping to transform the way people with autism are perceived. His sister Kelly puts it simply: “Other people are finally seeing Jimmy the way we do.”

By Susan Maas

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Vikings adopt a room at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital

2011-11-17T20:57:23Z

Team’s gift of $200,000 will coincide with additional $240,000 to the University of Minnesota Department of Pediatrics for research to treat and cure childhood diseases

The Minnesota Vikings and head coach Leslie Frazier have announced a gift of $200,000 for the Minnesota Vikings Adopt A Room at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital. The endowed gift from the Vikings will furnish a patient’s room with today’s groundbreaking technologies and comfortable amenities while securing a place for future pioneering medical advancements.

Frazier, along with a group of other Vikings coaches and players, visited patients in the hospital on November 18 and unveiled a special jersey that will decorate the room.

“Watching a child battle a serious illness is one of the most difficult challenges a family can face,” Frazier says. “The Adopt A Room program allows for a better experience for the patients and their families during those challenging times. Adopting a room is a great way for the Vikings organization to support Minnesota families and show our continued commitment to children’s health.”

“We can truly transform the experience for hospitalized children by providing a healing environment that works to meet a family’s social and emotional needs as well as the complex health conditions of the child,” says Joseph P. Neglia, M.D., M.P.H., physician-in-chief of University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital and chair of the Department of Pediatrics in the University of Minnesota Medical School. “We are so grateful for gifts like this from the Minnesota Vikings, which help to remind our community that we can all make a direct impact on the lives of children and their families.”

The Vikings will also donate $240,000 from the Vikings Children’s Fund (VCF) to the Department of Pediatrics for promising research to treat and cure childhood diseases. This critical funding allows researchers the opportunity to secure data and leverage national research awards. Of that gift, $80,000 will be directed to support the Vikings Fitness Playbook as part of a three-year commitment to tackle childhood obesity.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Coach and family raise awareness and funds for Fanconi anemia

2011-10-24T16:57:48Z

When Florida State University football coach Jimbo Fisher and his wife, Candi, learned earlier this year that their son Ethan has a rare, life-threatening blood disorder called Fanconi anemia, they felt compelled to take action that would help not only Ethan but other children, too.

So they established the Kidz1stFund™ to raise money for Fanconi anemia research at the University of Minnesota. The University is a leader in discovering better ways to treat the disorder and in the pursuit of a cure.

A hereditary disease, Fanconi anemia can affect all systems in the body and leads to bone marrow failure. For decades, it was thought to be untreatable, but advances in medical research have improved the prognosis for people with the condition.

“One thing I’ve learned as a football coach is to never accept defeat,” says Jimbo Fisher. “We are in this to win the fight against Fanconi anemia on behalf of all the children who share this struggle with Ethan.”

The family and their supporters already have raised more than $400,000 for the University’s work. Six-year-old Ethan’s physician is University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital blood and marrow transplant physician Margaret MacMillan, M.D.

“Through research, improvements are made each year in treating patients with Fanconi anemia — improvements that have changed the survival rate after unrelated donor bone marrow transplant for this disease from less than 30 percent to greater than 80 percent in the last 15 years,” MacMillan says. “But there is much more to do. We will not stop until we have 100 percent survival.”

Visit www.kidz1stfund.com to make a gift to this research.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Children's Health

2011-10-17T17:44:22Z

Fall 2011

A place of their own

Amplatz Children’s Hospital’s new children-only emergency department delivers exceptional care with a unique mission

When University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital opened the doors of its emergency department for the first time on April 30, the breakthrough pediatric medicine offered there became easier to find. The brand-new hospital, located on the University’s Riverside campus, now has a welcoming and easy-to-find emergency department dedicated solely to children.

Continue reading this story »

Center offers a family support system

Rich Kaplan, M.D., M.S.W., was deliberate about the words he chose when he named the University of Minnesota’s Center for Safe and Healthy Children five years ago. “The goal of the center is to keep children safe and to support families so they can raise healthy kids,” says Kaplan, who also founded the center and is one of only two physicians in Minnesota (and one of fewer than 200 in the United States) board-certified in child abuse pediatrics.

Continue reading this story »

Winning CF team helps keep Kyle on the ice

Something wasn’t right with Kyle Schwendemann. He came back from an ice fishing trip with pale skin and purple lips, recalls his mother, Melissa. She knew his cystic fibrosis was behind it.

Continue reading this story »

Take a page from the Vikings (Fitness) Playbook

Help your kids start the school year off right with these tips from the Vikings Fitness Playbook, a tool using offensive and defensive plays from childhood obesity experts at the University of Minnesota and supported by the Minnesota Vikings and Vikings Children’s Fund.

Continue reading this story »

‘Little red wagons’ inspire gift

Looking back, Marcy Betcher thinks the seeds that would later grow into her family’s support for University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital were planted back in 1997 at the sight of little red wagons.

Continue reading this story »

Harnessing crucial cells to save lives

It has been more than 40 years since University of Minnesota physicians performed the world’s first successful pediatric bone marrow transplant, and researchers here have never stopped trying to find better ways to secure long and healthy lives for children who have cancer. Physician-scientist Heather Stefanski, M.D., Ph.D., echoes the dedication of her colleagues past and present when she says of her young patients, “I have to make life better for them.”

Continue reading this story »

Upcoming events

Find more information WineFest No. 17, Dawn of a Dream, and Dave Lee’s Gutter Bowl.

Continue reading this story »

Many thanks to our current Adopt A Room sponsors

Our goal is to find sponsors for all 96 patient rooms in University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital.

Continue reading this story »

Awards honor leaders in pediatric cancer research

Two pioneering University of Minnesota pediatric cancer researchers will be recognized for their tireless dedication to children on October 28 at the University’s McNamara Alumni Center.

Continue reading this story »

About Children’s Health

Children’s Health is published by the Minnesota Medical Foundation. Reader comments and suggestions are welcome. Contact the editor directly at 612-626-1941 or n.endres@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

A place of their own

2011-10-12T20:15:54Z

Amplatz Children’s Hospital’s new children-only emergency department delivers exceptional care with a unique mission

The brand-new hospital, located on the University’s Riverside campus, now has a welcoming and easy-to-find emergency department dedicated solely to children. Amplatz Children’s Hospital’s former setup as a “hospital within a hospital” on the University’s East Bank campus meant that all patients needing emergent care—whether children or adults—entered through one set of emergency department doors at University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview.

The culture of the new emergency department reflects the entire hospital’s attention to family-centered care and to delivering the very best experience for children. “There’s nothing in here that isn’t state-of-theart,” says Anupam Kharbanda, M.D., research director for the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine.

Treatment spaces are large enough that parents can stay by their child’s side. Children and adolescents with behavioral or mental health needs have a room specially designed to help them feel safe. And two fully equipped trauma bays allow emergency staff to care for the most severely ill or injured children.

“Being able to influence emergency pediatric care for the better—perhaps around the world—through our work at Amplatz is what it means to be part of the University of Minnesota,” says assistant professor Tom Hellmich, M.D., who joined the Department of Pediatrics’ emergency medicine team after 18 years practicing locally elsewhere. “That opportunity inspires me to be a better physician and educator.”

Setting the standard

Leading-edge emergency facilities demand leading-edge emergency care. The gold standard today is “evidence-driven.” In the emergency department, this means following carefully researched protocols that provide consistent, proven treatments in a fast-paced environment. Many of those protocols are designed at academic hospitals like Amplatz.

“We want to ensure that all children in the ED get the same excellent care for their particular injury or illness,” says Ron Furnival, M.D., codirector of the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine. “Evidence-driven care allows us to do that. For example, if a child comes in with diabetic ketoacidosis, we’ve designed a protocol that nurses can get started immediately that is the same for every patient, every time.”

Furnival believes that being part of an academic medical center gives the emergency department a distinct advantage when designing these protocols. Here physicians are responsible for educating residents and medical students, so they must be attuned to the latest research—and may have conducted some of it themselves.

Kharbanda, for instance, explored ways to evaluate children with possible appendicitis without automatically ordering a CT scan. The result of his work is an online evaluation tool for physicians that suggests a course of action for the child. This method can be shared with emergency departments around the country.

“Designing evidence-driven care protocols can be time-consuming,” says Kharbanda. “But the University supports its physicians in this work and holds to the larger vision of improving care for everyone.”

Better care for all children

Combining teaching and research with first-rate innovative care is the essence of academic medicine. Sharing the knowledge gained in these pursuits is its mission—and it sets Amplatz Children’s Hospital’s emergency department apart from the pack.

According to Mark Roback, M.D., who codirects the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine with Furnival, 90 percent of children in the United States are seen in emergency departments not connected to a children’s hospital.

“It’s important that we take care of the patients we have at Amplatz, but it’s just as important for us to be involved in making sure that children, regardless of where they are seen, receive a similar level of care,” he says. “That’s the responsibility of academic medicine.”

Access to excellence

Since Amplatz Children’s Hospital’s new emergency department opened its doors, it has seen a 46 percent increase in patients over the combined pediatric visits to the two University of Minnesota Medical Center emergency departments on its Riverside and East Bank campuses during the same timeframe last year.

Children arrive at the emergency department with a myriad of emergencies: everything from head injuries to stomach aches to complications from bone marrow transplants. They come from the city and the suburbs, from the Dakotas and from Amplatz’s new Riverside neighborhood, with its Somali, East African, Vietnamese, Central American, and Mexican families.

These children not only have 24-hour access to the expertise of pediatric emergency medicine physicians, but also to those trained in other subspecialties, like pediatric ophthalmology, dentistry, and infectious diseases.

“Our job—and what we love—is to take care of children,” says Roback. “No matter what brings them to us, our emergency department and the entire hospital will serve them with unmatched care.”

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Center offers a family support system

2011-10-12T20:02:26Z

Rich Kaplan, M.D., M.S.W., was deliberate about the words he chose when he named the University of Minnesota’s Center for Safe and Healthy Children five years ago.

“The goal of the center is to keep children safe and to support families so they can raise healthy kids,” says Kaplan, who also founded the center and is one of only two physicians in Minnesota (and one of fewer than 200 in the United States) board-certified in child abuse pediatrics.

Kaplan works closely with the physicians at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital’s emergency department, a group he calls “the best in the state.” That group, along with Kaplan and pediatric trauma surgeons at the hospital, designed a strict protocol to follow when an injured child comes into the emergency department.

If there is not “a clear, corroborated mechanism of injury,” meaning the cause of the child’s injury is in question, Kaplan says, or if the child has significant injuries and is under two years old, the center receives a call.

But when possible, Kaplan prefers to be proactive and reach out to families before any child suffers maltreatment.

“We really want to help families so they don’t fail, rather than wait until they do fail and then call in child protection,” he says. “That’s the old model.”

The family-centered culture and quiet spaces at Amplatz Children’s Hospital provide a place for Kaplan and members of his staff to meet with families under stress, many of them with critically or chronically ill children, in a nonthreatening way.

“One thing families feel they’re not allowed to do is to say how awful and hard it is to have a sick child,” he says. “We try to give them permission to say that and then find them support.”

To learn how you can support the Center for Safe and Healthy Children, contact Courtney Billing at 612-626-1931 or c.billing@mmf.umn.edu.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Winning CF team helps keep Kyle on the ice

2011-10-12T18:35:56Z

Something wasn’t right with Kyle Schwendemann. He came back from an ice fishing trip with pale skin and purple lips, recalls his mother, Melissa. She knew his cystic fibrosis was behind it.

Cystic fibrosis is a hereditary disease that causes thick mucus to accumulate in a person’s lungs and sinuses. The disease also makes it difficult for the body to absorb nutrients from food.

Kyle, who was diagnosed when he was 3 months old, was no stranger to University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital. His cystic fibrosis landed him there a couple of times every year, even though he has kept up with his therapies, which include taking a handful of vitamins and enzymes daily and wearing his lung-clearing chest compression vest three or four times a day.

But he was in good hands. Thanks to research conducted at the University over the last 50 years, the life expectancy for patients of the Minnesota Cystic Fibrosis Center is a full decade longer than the national average.

The University is also the birthplace of the widely used chest compression vest, invented and perfected by pioneering physician-scientist Warren Warwick, M.D., who recently retired after five decades as a leader in his field.

So when Kyle checked into the hospital in March 2009 to have a part of his right lung removed—the part where mucus kept getting stuck, causing most of his hospitalizations—his family knew he was in the right place.

Since recovering from that surgery, 14-year-old Kyle is back on skates where he belongs.

“Kyle is a hockey player first, a young man with cystic fibrosis second,” says Terri Laguna, M.D., Kyle’s pulmonologist at Amplatz Children’s Hospital. “Since his surgery, he has spent more time on the ice and less in the hospital.”

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Take a page from the Vikings (Fitness) Playbook

2011-10-12T18:33:32Z

Punt the junk. Limit the high-fat, high-sugar foods you eat.
Tackle your thirst. Choose water instead of juice or soda.
Pass the fruits and vegetables. Fill half of your plate with these power foods.

Find the entire booklet, which is meant to help kids stay active and eat well throughout the year, at z.umn.edu/playbook.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

'Little red wagons' inspire gift

2011-10-12T16:53:33Z

As Marcy waited for a hematology appointment at University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, she saw a brigade of volunteers bringing young cancer patients to the clinic in colorful Radio Flyer wagons.

“I was so touched by it all—the wagons, the clown who came in to entertain the children while they waited for their blood tests,” Betcher says. “And the fact that the University let it happen so these kids could have a piece of normalcy during a difficult time.”

Fast forward to 2011, when the new University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital opened with dozens of Adopt A Rooms, special rooms designed to make the hospital a little more like home. Adopted rooms give sick children more control of their environments and provide more amenities for their families.

After hearing about the Adopt A Room program, Betcher remembered the cheer that the little red wagons had brought to the children she saw years ago—and she saw Adopt A Rooms providing that cheer on a larger scale. Plus, sponsoring a room fit perfectly with her and her husband’s convictions.

“Family giving is important to us,” says Randy Betcher. The family also believes that giving back to the community is important in its own right, he adds.

Marcy and Randy Betcher also want to instill this value in their children, Andrew, age 14, and Kira, age 10, whom they adopted from Korea.

Now the Betchers have given generously to adopt a room at Amplatz Children’s Hospital— a room they named “Andrew and Kira’s Room.”

“You don’t get an opportunity to make a big difference in people’s lives like this every day,” Randy says. “This is our chance to do that.”

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Harnessing crucial cells to save lives

2011-10-12T16:37:50Z

Physician-scientist Heather Stefanski, M.D., Ph.D., echoes the dedication of her colleagues past and present when she says of her young patients, “I have to make life better for them.”

Today two major research efforts are exploring how to manipulate immunity-boosting T-cells—before and after an umbilical cord blood or bone marrow transplant—to save a child’s life.

Helping the body do its job

When a child receives a blood or marrow transplant, immune system T-cells play a central role. These sophisticated cells are educated as youngsters in the thymus—the “T” in T-cell—and develop into mature T-cells ready to protect the body against invaders.

One of the things to guard against after a transplant is graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), which occurs when T-cells in the graft (the transplanted blood or bone marrow) attack the patient’s body (the host) as “foreign.”

Bruce Blazar, M.D., director of the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, wants to find a way to thwart GVHD by boosting a child’s supply of a type of cell called regulatory T-cells, whose job is to suppress fellow T-cells if they become too aggressive.

Growing regulatory T-cells in a lab is difficult, but Blazar’s research—supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and Children’s Cancer Research Fund—has replicated these cells in vitro up to 50-million-fold compared with only 70-fold previously. In animal models and limited human trials, University studies have shown that fortifying the body with these cells before a transplant is effective against GVHD.

“The ability to deliver such large quantities of these cells to patients before they undergo transplantation significantly reduces the chances of graft-versus-host disease,” says Blazar.

John Wagner, M.D., director of the University’s Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program, is now evaluating the promise of Blazar’s work through a clinical trial.

No time to spare

If overactive T-cells in the graft pose a threat to the child, not having enough T-cells in the host—the child’s body—can be lethal.

“Until a year after a transplant, children don’t have enough of their own T-cells,” says Stefanski, an assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Blood and Marrow Transplantation. “Our patients can be cured of their leukemia and yet die from a common cold.”

Stem cells in the transplanted blood or marrow will, over time, develop into a child’s own protective T-cells, but these patients cannot afford to wait that long, Stefanski says. To better defend children against infections in that critical first year, she is looking for a way to augment their immune systems with young T-cells.

Working under an NIH project grant secured by Blazar and Wagner, Stefanski is growing these cells in her lab until they are strong enough to be delivered to a child. The hope is that enough of them will then migrate to the child’s thymus and grow more quickly into protective T-cells.

In a year or two, Stefanski believes she’ll be ready to transplant umbilical cord blood into mice and then introduce enough budding T-cells to prevent life-threatening infections. If her methods are successful, a human clinical trial may be possible in five years.

“One of the most heartbreaking aspects of my job is when a child dies because of an overwhelming infection due to the transplant,” she says. “We do everything we can, and it’s still not good enough. This is unacceptable to me and the reason that I’m doing my research.”

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Upcoming events

2011-10-12T15:25:24Z

WineFest No. 17

Mark your calendars for WineFest No. 17— A Toast to Children’s Health on May 11 and 12, 2012. This year’s featured artist is Jimmy Reagan, a budding painter and Mendota Heights resident who has autism. Since its inception, WineFest has raised more than $9 million for children’s health research, education, and care at the University of Minnesota. Watch for more information at www.thewinefest.org.

Dawn of a Dream

Saturday, November 5
The Depot, Minneapolis

Join us for this 31st annual black-tie event, which benefits Children’s Cancer Research Fund, a decades-long supporter of pediatric cancer research at the University of Minnesota. For more information, visit www.childrenscancer.org/dawnofadream.

Dave Lee’s Gutter Bowl

Friday, February 17
Brunswick Zone XL, Brooklyn Park

WCCO Radio presents this annual bowling tournament, which benefits the Dave Lee’s Gutter Bowl Adopt A Room at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital. Watch for more information at www.uofmhope.org.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Many thanks to our current Adopt A Room sponsors

2011-10-12T15:16:42Z

Aerotek

Caroline Amplatz, J.D.

Anonymous

Randy and Marcy Betcher

The Calmenson family

Champions for Children Golf Classic

Listeners of Cities 97 (KTCZ 97.1)

Dave Lee’s Gutter Bowl and fans of WCCO Radio

The Dolphin family

Edwards Memorial Trust

The Jack and Camie Eugster Family Foundation

Members of the Fairview Corporate Board

Fairview Health Services employees

Favre 4 Hope Foundation

The Friswold family

Listeners of KFAN (FM 100.3)

John and Nancy Lindahl and family

Dana and David Millington

The Rich and Mary Ostlund Charitable Fund

Pediatric Home Service employees

Brian, Kristen, Brian Jr., and Angela Schepperle

Ron and Teresa Sit

Our goal is to find sponsors for all 96 patient rooms in University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital. To learn how you or your company can adopt a room, visit www.uofmhope.org/adoptaroom or contact Elizabeth Patty at 612-625-6136 or e.patty@mmf.umn.edu .

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Awards honor leaders in pediatric cancer research

2011-10-12T14:12:53Z

Two pioneering University of Minnesota pediatric cancer researchers will be recognized for their tireless dedication to children on October 28 at the University’s McNamara Alumni Center.

John H. Kersey, M.D., and Mark E. Nesbit Jr., M.D., will receive the University of Minnesota Medical Alumni Society’s Harold S. Diehl Award for lifetime achievement, granted to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the Medical School, the University as a whole, and the community.

As founding director of what is now known as the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Kersey has not only proven himself as a compassionate doctor and researcher but also as a skillful listener who excels at bringing people together to work toward a common goal. The forward-thinking Kersey, a 1964 Medical School alumnus, also led the medical team that performed the world’s first successful bone marrow transplant for treating lymphoma. Since he stepped down as Masonic Cancer Center director in 2007, he has returned to the lab to pursue his lifelong research into the causes of and cures for acute leukemia and lymphoma.

Described by his peers as an astute clinician, researcher, teacher, and advocate, Nesbit is a pioneer in the treatment of acute leukemia. His work has set the standard of care for children who have leukemia—one that has been used as a model for treating other pediatric and adult cancers as well. Nesbit, who completed his residency and fellowship training at the University of Minnesota in the 1960s, also served as the first board chair of Children’s Cancer Research Fund, a nonprofit organization that has invested nearly $60 million in pediatric cancer research at the University.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Take a page from the Vikings (Fitness) Playbook

2011-09-07T16:34:02Z

Help your kids start the school year off right with the Vikings Fitness Playbook, a tool using offensive and defensive plays from childhood obesity experts at the University of Minnesota. This handy booklet will help kids stay active and eat well throughout the year and is made possible by generous support from the Vikings Children’s Fund and the Minnesota Vikings.

Download the Playbook

PDF, 1.9 MB

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Room to learn

2011-09-01T18:53:09Z

Resident education at the former University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital building was top-notch, but as for space dedicated to training, “we had precious little,” says John Andrews, M.D., who directs the Pediatric Residency Program.

Conference rooms were a 10-minute walk away, shared meeting spaces were outdated, and cramped patient rooms made it difficult to conduct rounds.

What a difference a move across the river makes.

“The Amplatz hospital allows us to gather together now near the wards in nice, big, well-lit rooms,” says Miriam Shapiro, M.D., third-year general pediatric resident.

In these meeting rooms, physicians can project presentations and access medical records, making clinical care discussions easier. And because all patient rooms are private and 65 percent larger than rooms in the former location, learning can take place during family-centered rounds at the patient’s bedside as well.

Andrews says philanthropy has been crucial to providing spaces for education at the new hospital.

Heidi Roy Hubbard, M.D., a 1997 alumna of the pediatric residency program, made the lead gift for the new Resident Physician Lounge and Pediatric Education Resource Center. Additional support from countless residency and fellowship program alumni have helped to make this unique space a reality for current and future pediatric residents.

These new spaces, along with the philanthropy-dependent Auditorium, Conference, and Education Center in the new facility’s lobby, will ensure that University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital continues and enhances its century-old legacy of educating tomorrow’s leading pediatricians and physician-scientists.

Additionally, the generosity of Leon Satran, M.D.—who completed his residency and fellowship training at the University and has been on the pediatric faculty here for four decades—and his wife, Alma, helps to ensure that today’s pediatricians-in-training have access to superior educational materials and experiences such as professional research conferences. The Satrans, understanding how difficult it can be to secure funding to support resident education, made an unrestricted gift to the University’s pediatric residency program to be used at the director’s discretion.

“At the University, we have tremendous opportunities for our residents,” says Andrews. “Donors like the Satrans and Dr. Hubbard increase our ability to really give these young doctors the best possible experiences and education.”

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

U researchers advance crucial stem cell technology

2011-07-12T19:21:57Z

University of Minnesota researchers have developed a new method for creating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), which can differentiate into many different types of the cells in the body and are used in medical research focused on diabetes, cancer, and many other diseases. This new process will dramatically speed up the creation of iPS cells and improve their quality, which could accelerate the treatment of many otherwise incurable diseases.

You can make a difference

Help the University of Minnesota save lives, inspire hope, and prepare the world’s future health care leaders. Make a gift today.

Because with your support, anything is possible.

Because hope can go a long way

Learn more about how you can support children’s health at UofMHope.org

Children’s Health | Minnesota Medical Foundation

Give the gift of childhood this holiday season

'Purple Pride' players show their support for maroon and gold

Web Extras

Slideshow

Never accepting defeat

Florida State coach and family raise awareness and funds for Fanconi anemia research at the U

Celebrating Sue

Endowed chair honors a dedicated advocate for Children’s Cancer Research Fund

Making strides toward a cure

Capturing a world of color and beauty

Discovering a passion

Connecting through art

Vikings adopt a room at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital

Team’s gift of $200,000 will coincide with additional $240,000 to the University of Minnesota Department of Pediatrics for research to treat and cure childhood diseases

Coach and family raise awareness and funds for Fanconi anemia

Children's Health

Fall 2011

Amplatz Children’s Hospital’s new children-only emergency department delivers exceptional care with a unique mission

About Children’s Health

Archives

A place of their own

Amplatz Children’s Hospital’s new children-only emergency department delivers exceptional care with a unique mission

Setting the standard

Better care for all children

Access to excellence

Center offers a family support system

Winning CF team helps keep Kyle on the ice

Take a page from the Vikings (Fitness) Playbook

'Little red wagons' inspire gift

Harnessing crucial cells to save lives

Helping the body do its job

No time to spare

Upcoming events

WineFest No. 17

Dawn of a Dream

Dave Lee’s Gutter Bowl

Many thanks to our current Adopt A Room sponsors

Awards honor leaders in pediatric cancer research

Take a page from the Vikings (Fitness) Playbook

Download the Playbook

Room to learn

U researchers advance crucial stem cell technology