Volume II

Summer 2010

Eleven-Year-Old Regains Movement At Barrow After Partial Paralysis From Soccer Injury - Travels To New York To Appear On The Today Show

Eleven-year-old Mackenzie Saunders was playing soccer a few days before Christmas when a player from the opposing team collided with her. Mackenzie got back up and played, but within minutes she lost feeling in her body and was in pain.

Mackenzie's parents drove her to a Valley emergency department, which transferred her to another hospital to be monitored. After she was diagnosed with a spinal cord injury, Mackenzie was brought to Barrow's Neuro Rehabilitation Unit at St. Joseph's for intense physical and occupational therapy.

"When Mackenzie arrived at Barrow, she couldn't move the lower part of her body," says her father, Gary Saunders. "We weren't sure how long it would take her to regain movement."

Within days in Neuro Rehab, Mackenzie was moving her lower extremities and gaining strength to walk again. Upon her discharge from the hospital three weeks later, she was moving with a walker. Now, Mackenzie is walking without assistance.

"We were overwhelmed with excitement when Mackenzie started to walk again," says Gary. "We are thrilled with her progress, thanks to the great medical team at St. Joseph's and Barrow."

Although Mackenzie's injury was serious, sustaining such an injury from a collision on the soccer field is rare.

"Mackenzie's injury is the only case I've heard of from playing soccer," says Christina Kwasnica, MD, medical director of Neuro Rehab at Barrow. "Mackenzie's age and determination are helping her progress and regain movement amazingly well."

"I am really glad that I am getting stronger," says Mackenzie. "My therapists and doctors in Neuro and Outpatient Rehab are awesome."

St. Joseph's Performs Valley's First Pediatric Heart Transplant

In the tradition of caring for patients of all ages, St. Joseph's continues to care for pediatric patients and recently performed the Valley's first pediatric heart transplant. The six-month-old boy was ready to go home just in time for Mother's Day. After three prior open heart surgeries, Kaiden Ramsey Hermosillo received his new heart in mid-April.

"All I ever wished for was to watch my son grow up and now we'll be able to," says Marissa Sior Hermosillo, Kaiden's mother. "This is a miracle. It is a perfect Mother's Day present."

Hermosillo experienced a normal pregnancy until at 16 weeks she was told her baby had serious heart problems. While still in the womb, Kaiden was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and a dysfunctional right ventricle, meaning that the left side of his heart was not developed and the right side of his heart was unable to pump enough blood for him to survive. He was born in September at St. Joseph's and underwent the first of three open heart surgeries at four days old.

"He was born fighting for his life," says Robert Ramsey, Kaiden's father. "Everyday he kept getting worse, everyday we thought we were going to lose him."

In March, while being cared for at home, Kaiden stopped breathing and was taken by air ambulance to St. Joseph's where doctors determined he was in heart failure. Kaiden was listed with the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) in April and received his new heart just 48 hours later.

"When Kaiden was brought out of the transplant surgery, for the first time I saw a pink, healthy baby," says Hermosillo. "We knew we could finally raise him and do normal activities like taking him to the zoo without being afraid of losing him."

John Nigro, MD, heart transplant program director, and Ross Bremner, MD, chief of thoracic surgery, completed Kaiden's surgery in approximately six hours. Stephen Pophal, MD, medical director of the congenital heart center, has managed his care since birth.

"We are not only pleased for this family but pleased for the dozens of other Arizona families who can now turn to a Phoenix hospital for this life-saving procedure for their child," says Dr. Pophal.

Other members of the heart transplant team include transplant cardiologist Robert Puntel, MD; transplant coordinators Susan Park, PNP, and Robert Bennett, NP; and advanced heart failure EP specialist, Edward Rhee, MD.

Pediatric heart transplants are among the most complicated procedures, and patients like Kaiden require a lifetime of care. In Arizona, 10 to 20 children per year are candidates for heart transplants. If transplantation is appropriate, some children wait weeks while other children have to wait years for a suitable donor organ to become available.

St. Joseph's expects to perform approximately five heart transplants per year, making it a medium-sized program. This is the second transplantation program at St. Joseph's. In April 2007, the hospital completed the Valley's first lung transplant. Since then, the Heart & Lung Institute at St. Joseph's has completed 50 lung transplants.

The Health & Wealth Raffle: Zoe's Story

Although Zoe Lemieux sits on her own and is contemplating crawling - like most eight-month-old babies - she had anything but a normal start in life.

When Zoe was born, she was nearly lifeless. Her umbilical cord was kinked, and her brain was not getting enough oxygen, putting her at risk of brain damage or even death. Fortunately, Zoe's doctor quickly transferred her to St. Joseph's.

There, newborn and brain experts in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (ICU) treated Zoe with hypothermia, a therapy that can preserve the brain after hypoxia, or inadequate oxygen. Doctors chilled Zoe's body to 92 degrees Fahrenheit over the course of three days and then gradually re-warmed the infant.

Zoe is now a healthy, bright-eyed baby, and her parents say she shows few signs of her difficult start.

The Neonatal ICU where Zoe received care is one of the many areas of St. Joseph's and Barrow that have received critical funding from the Health & Wealth Raffle.

"When I walk through the halls of St. Joseph's, I see many, many areas that have been touched by raffle funding," says Mary Jane Crist, chief executive officer of St. Joseph's Foundation, Barrow Neurological Foundation and The Congenital Heart Foundation. "The Health & Wealth Raffle has allowed the hospital to recruit highly skilled doctors, launch new units and programs, purchase the latest technology, and invest in promising research."

To date, the Health & Wealth Raffle has raised nearly $50 million for the hospital, making possible many programs that the hospital otherwise could not afford.

For more information about the Health & Wealth Raffle, visit www.HealthWealthRaffle.org. The Fall 2010 Health & Wealth Raffle begins in August.

Enter For A Chance To Win In The 15th Raffle!

When the 15th Health & Wealth Raffle launches this August, more than 4,500 prizes will be up for grabs - including a unique grand prize that will take the winner to new heights.

"I look for the sizzle when shopping for Health & Wealth Raffle prizes," says Kathy Rice, executive director of the Health & Wealth Raffle. "The more attractive the prize, the more money we can raise for the hospital, and at the end of the day, it's the dollars going back to the hospital that matter most."

The Spring 2010 Health & Wealth Raffle wrapped on April 1, and it was one of the most successful raffles in the past three years. Significant funds were raised for research, medical education, and patient care at St. Joseph's and Barrow.

Since the raffle began in 2003, nearly 115,000 prizes have been awarded to raffle participants, including 26 homes, more than 350 trips, and an estimated 420 vehicles.

"We are very grateful to everyone who supports this important hospital fundraiser," says Mary Jane Crist, CEO of St. Joseph's Foundation, Barrow Neurological Foundation, and The Congenital Heart Foundation.

For more information about the Health & Wealth Raffle, visit www.HealthWealthRaffle.org. To receive a raffle brochure by email, please visit the raffle website and click the "Sign Up" button.

Happy Campers - Benefactor Funds Speech Therapy Camp at Barrow

It was the first summer camp most of these 12 kids had ever attended and it was designed just for them. Here, no one teased them about the way they talk or about the scars on their faces.

Instead, the Happy Campers Speech Camp made these children feel safe and, best of all, normal.

The Happy Campers Speech Camp at the Barrow Children's Cleft and Craniofacial Center at St. Joseph's provided intense speech therapy - disguised as fun activities - to children, ages 5 to 11, with severe speech problems due to cleft lip and palate. The six-hour-a-day camp was held in June.

Each day included playtime, a creative project or craft, lunch, sport/motor activity time, board games, speech drills, and a session with a psychologist to discuss issues like teasing and self-esteem.

For speech pathologist Deborah Leach, MA, CCC-SP, the camp was a 10-year dream. "I've watched kids born with craniofacial disorders grow up. I've seen how long it takes them to make progress," she says. "And I've thought, 'If I could just have these kids for a couple of weeks, I think I could make a lot of progress with their speech.'"

Leach's dream came true after Shelby Butterfield, a member of St. Joseph's Foundation's Board of Directors, watched a video about the craniofacial center during a tour of the hospital. In the video, the children talked about how they feel when people can't understand what they're trying to say and when other kids tease them.

"She was so moved, she wrote a check that day," Leach says. Butterfield's contribution made it possible for all 12 children to attend the camp at no charge. "Every parent was overwhelmed with gratitude, every single parent," Leach says.

The children were equally excited about the first-year camp, says Leach. Some woke their parents up at 5 a.m. to go to camp, and others didn't want to leave at the end of the day. They were especially interested in the tickets they could earn for "good speech" - tickets they could use to buy toys.

Cleft lip and palate is the most common birth defect of the face. It occurs when the gaps in an unborn child's lips and palate do not close as they normally do. A child with cleft lip and palate typically undergoes six to 10 surgeries, along with speech therapy and psychological counseling, between birth and 21 years of age. Eating problems, speech difficulties, and self-esteem issues are common among these children.

The Barrow Children's Cleft and Craniofacial Center is the only accredited craniofacial program in the Valley and the only program of its kind in the Southwest. The center cares for about 6,400 children, ages 0-21. Patients come from throughout Arizona, as well as from parts of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.

Family Honors Son Through Water Safety Video

St. Joseph's new Oliver Otter, You Otter Be Water Wise video features a poignant message from the Jana and Clifford Johnson family, who funded the project in their son K.C.'s memory after he drowned at the age of nine. His family wants to make sure all children know how to be careful around water.

This epilogue, delivered by a sweet young voice, explains the Johnson family's dedication over the past 24 years to funding programs that prevent drowning or assist in the retrieval of drowning victims.

"We're very honored that we can help out," says Jana, K.C.'s mother.

The original Oliver Otter video was produced in the late 1980s. Filmed in the backyard swimming pool of K.C.'s grandmother, the video featured Candice, one of his sisters. The updated version was filmed in the same location, with Candice and her children appearing. An animated Oliver was added to the new version, along with the tribute to K.C. at the end.

"We were able to do the video in both English and Spanish and with closed captioning," says Lucy Ranus, coordinator of Barrow prevention programs at St. Joseph's. "In addition, the children in the new video actually model the safety rules, which meets the learning needs of children with autism."

Community educators use the video in presentations to preschool children at Head Start programs and daycare centers. A St. Joseph's employee reads the children a story about Oliver Otter and water safety, shows the video, and asks the children questions about what they've learned. Then a costumed Oliver Otter shows up to go over the safety rules again.

Ranus says the program has reached hundreds of children and their parents in Arizona. "This program works because children learn through fun. They learn through play," she says. Besides funding the Oliver Otter videos, the Johnson family produced a video for older children about water safety in lakes, rivers, and canals. They also have provided ongoing support to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department Dive Team and Lake Patrol. It was the Dive Team that searched Lake Powell for a week after K.C.'s accident, finally locating his body and giving the family the closure they needed.

"If the team hadn't been as kind, thoughtful and determined as they were, we wouldn't have found him," Jana says. "I'll never forget them."

The Johnson family's philanthropic activities are funded through the K.C. Johnson Search and Rescue Water Safety Education Foundation, established shortly after K.C.'s death. For several years, the family sponsored quail hunts at their ranch to raise money for the foundation.

"The family has taken this tragedy and taught their children to give back," says Ranus. "They're just an extraordinary family. It's an amazing story of pulling together and working to prevent these tragedies."

Bret Michaels Treated at St. Joseph's

St. Joseph's and Barrow recently made international headlines when rocker Bret Michaels was treated at the hospital for a brain hemorrhage.

Bret, 47, was admitted to St. Joseph's at the end of April after experiencing a sudden onset of severe, incapacitating head and neck pain. He was diagnosed with having a subarachnoid brain hemorrhage, a type of stroke that causes bleeding in the fluid-filled spaces around the base of the brain. It presents itself suddenly causing severe cranial pain. Although the most common cause of this condition is a spontaneous rupture of a cerebral aneurysm, 15 to 20 percent of spontaneous episodes are found to have no cause. In Bret's case, an aneurysm was not the cause of his hemorrhage.

"A subarachnoid brain hemorrhage is a life threatening, neurological emergency that requires an extensive medical workup to prevent re-bleeding, and management of the complications associated with the hemorrhage," says Joseph Zabramski, MD, chief of cerebrovascular surgery at Barrow. "Bret is one of those lucky people who did not have an aneurysm associated with his hemorrhage."

Bret continues to be evaluated by St. Joseph's and Barrow's medical team. He is the lead singer of the 80s rock band Poison and recently won the title on NBC's Celebrity Apprentice.

Barrow Vision Researchers Provide Content For Entire Special Issue Of Scientific American Mind

Pick up a copy of Scientific American Mind for eye-popping articles and illustrations about visual illusions and what they tell researchers about the brain.

Barrow vision researchers Susana Martinez-Conde, PhD, and Stephen Macknik, PhD, provided all the content for the 72-page magazine, which is on newsstands worldwide until July 12.

The duo have been writing a monthly article for ScientificAmerican.com for more than two years. One of their articles was the most viewed in the website's history. About 10 months ago, Scientific American's editor contacted them about doing an entire issue on illusion. Drs. Martinez-Conde and Macknik contributed 10 articles and 169 illustrations to the special edition.

In the magazine, the scientists explain why studying illusions can help vision researchers in their work.

"Visual illusions demonstrate the ways in which the brain can fail to re-create the physical world. By studying these failings, we can learn about the computational methods used by the brain to construct visual experience."

Dr. Martinez-Conde runs the Laboratory of Visual Neuroscience, and Dr. Macknik runs the Laboratory of Behavioral Neurophysiology at Barrow. Their research has received support from the Barrow Neurological Foundation.