It’s not every day that a pediatric Phase 1 Clinical Trial Center opens in Wisconsin. In fact, the Oncology Program at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin is the only Children’s Oncology Group Phase 1 and Pilot Consortium in the entire state and one of only 21 centers in the world. That puts us in an elite group of pediatric cancer programs and raises the bar for research in the state.

So what does this really mean for the children and families who come through our doors? …Continue reading this post

Are you looking for that extra special present to give someone?
 Well how about giving up a little bit of yourself, or more specifically one of your organs, your blood or marrow?

Becoming an organ, blood or marrow donor holds the promise of life for thousands of patients with life-threatening conditions and diseases. Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin has seen the impact that organ donation can have for children and families awaiting a transplant. We perform heart, liver and kidney transplants. Many of our children wait months or years for an organ transplant.

The Organ Procurement and Transplant Network shows nearly 2,000 children in the U.S. are waiting for an organ transplant. Approximately 7 percent of children died in 2010 while waiting on the list for an organ transplant. Organs from adult donors often are too large to place into young children. Parents, relatives or friends sometimes can donate a kidney or part of a liver to a child. However, most children are placed on the waiting list for an organ from someone who has died.

The Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at Children’s Hospital is one of the largest in the U.S. using unrelated individuals or mismatched family members as donors. Blood and Marrow Transplants are used successfully to treat a number of cancers, blood diseases and immune disorders that were once considered incurable. Many children who have surgery also rely on life-saving blood donations.

Join the fight to save more lives through organ donation and transplantation. Sign up at YesIWillWisconsin.com. For more information on blood or marrow donation, visit the BloodCenter of Wisconsin.

~ Cinda Werner, MS, RN, director, Trauma and Transplant Services, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin

Everyone at the hospital knows me as a huge and vocal sports fan. So when the Milwaukee Bucks qualified for the playoffs this year, I had to do something to celebrate with the patients I see in the MACC Fund Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders every day.

Check out my video to see what I did. I did this to give our patients a chance to laugh, have fun and be part of the excitement that comes with having our home team in the playoffs. I did it to raise awareness about the upcoming Miracle Marathon, which impacts the resources I have available as our team at Children’s Hospital provides care for these wonderful children.

What would you do? Would you:

• Listen to 96.5 WKLH May 26-28?
• Pledge your donation at chw.org/miraclemarathon?
• Text 4CHW to 85944 for a small donation?
• Spread the word to your family and friends?

Learn more at chw.org/miraclemarathon.

~ David Margolis, MD, program director, Blood and Marrow Transplant

Our son Leo told us he had a headache three days in a row upon waking up. My husband, a family practice physician, told me that children don’t have headaches and on day three, had Leo go for a CT scan. Our world turned around when we saw a tumor that was one-third the size of the back of his brain. It needed to be taken out immediately.

Sept. 2, 2009, was when our nightmare began. Leo underwent a seven-hour surgery. The surgeon came out after just a few hours to tell us that the frozen section of Leo’s tumor revealed that he had medulloblastoma. This type of brain tumor only affects 500 children per year. Our Leo had gone from a healthy boy starting school to a boy who could no longer turn over in bed due to weakness and lack of coordination caused by the tumor.

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Next Monday, Aug. 24, Discovery Health Channel will air a “Mystery Diagnosis” episode about one of our patients. Claire Mantey was diagnosed here at Children’s with a rare condition called lymphangiomatosis. The film crew spent several days at our hospital last winter, interviewing our physicians and recreating how Claire was diagnosed. The program airs at 9 p.m. We hope you’ll tune in.

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