Patient Stories
Children's Center at Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento
Alex –Heart Surgery Keeps Her Healthy
Roxana and Brian were devastated to learn that their daughter, Alexandra, has a congenital heart defect. “We found out right after she was born. She was diagnosed with Ebstein’s anomaly – an extremely rare heart condition,” says Roxana. “The good news is that it is manageable. The bad news is that Alex may need heart surgery every several years in order to lead a normal life.”
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Jill – Heart Transplant Patient Builds Her Own Family After Triumphing Over Condition
When Jill was born in 1973, she had blue baby syndrome. Her parents would later learn that she was born with a severe heart defect and was missing both an atrium and a ventricle.
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Sydney Stevens – "Your Daughter Has Cancer"
The words are devastating for any parent to hear, but especially so when your daughter is just 9 years old.
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Sara – Crohn's Disease Not Getting in the Way of Growing Up
When she was 10, Sara began to suffer from heartburn and stomach problems. "It was awful to see my young daughter go through that," Shawndra says. "Sara’s energy level dropped; she quit soccer and didn’t want to walk our puppy anymore. She also lost 10 pounds – a lot for a sixth-grader her size. I knew something was wrong."
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Macy - Growing up with Juvenile Arthritis
When Gerica gave birth to her second child, she thought her life was moving along perfectly. She and her husband already had an adorable little girl, 16-month-old Macy. But, as Gerica went into her second month as a mom of two, things took a turn for the worse. Little Macy – who hit all her developmental milestones on track – began to lose interest in walking.
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Tyler - From football to heart surgery and back again
When the nurse at urgent care told Terri that her son had a cardiac abnormality, she didn’t believe it. After all, Tyler was the picture of health – an active high school senior and quarterback of the football team. Earlier that day, Tyler told his parents that he was having heart palpitations at practice. To be on the safe side, Terri and her husband took Tyler to an urgent care center where they ran tests that revealed a heart problem. Terri then took Tyler to a different medical provider for a second opinion. There, they confirmed a heart abnormality and insisted Tyler go to the local hospital for treatment.
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Aiden – Autism Specialist offers Hope to Family
To Danyelle, Dr. Chez is a rock star. And she doesn’t say that lightly. At age 3 and a half, her son Aiden was diagnosed with autism. At that time they lived out of the state and, although they saw the leading autism experts in the area, the extent of the advice was to modify his diet and do what they could to give their son the best life possible.
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Taylor – Neurosurgery to Halt Tumor
Kids grow fast. But what is too fast? Sara noticed 7-year-old daughter Taylor was growing at a rapid rate. So fast that she would grow out of clothes overnight and go through three shoe sizes in two months. Aware that something wasn’t right, Sara took Taylor to the pediatrician.
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Baby Brody – Thriving Today, After a Stay in the NICU
More than anything, Sara was excited to give birth to her second child. “The C-section was planned and I knew what to expect since I went through it with my daughter,” she says. “I couldn’t wait to meet my baby boy!”
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Bronte's Story – A Family Dedicated to Epilepsy Research
When Bronte was three months old she had her first seizure; that was nearly 16 years ago. Over the first few years of her life she had almost every kind of seizure possible and sometimes had up to 10 grand mal seizures per day. She saw specialist after specialist and tried many different medications.
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Emilie – Smallest baby in the world to undergo a balloon pulmonary valvuloplasty
Born three months premature and weighing only one pound, 15 ounces, Allison fought for her life in the Special Care Nursery. Weighing a mere one pound, seven ounces, Emilie had been born with critical pulmonary valve stenosis.
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Cynthia – Helping her Children Conquer Diabetes
"When you’re a parent, you do whatever you need to do for your children," says Cynthia, mother of nine. "It doesn’t matter if it’s difficult, you just do it."
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Baby Abigail – Coordinated Care Makes a Difference
As a first-time mom, Kathy was grateful for a normal pregnancy and complication-free delivery of her daughter. Before she was discharged to go home, one of the nurses warned that Abigail was slightly jaundiced.
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Gina – A Tiny Bundle of Miracles
While Gina tells her story, there’s a very active 3-year-old boy playing nearby and a 7-month-old baby girl clamoring to be fed. It’s been a lively, busy three years for Gina and her husband,
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Alexandria – Miracle Baby
Yvonne remembers that Thursday as if it were yesterday. She knows exactly what she was wearing and how hot it was. And she remembers how shocked and scared she felt when her water broke - 16 weeks early.
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Anthony – Brave 5-Year-Old & Gamma Knife
Tammy finished her shift as a cashier at the Goodwill store on Arden Way, returned to her apartment and found her son Anthony complaining. "Ahh, my head hurts," he whined. A warm shower and a snack, she thought, would help her 5-year-old feel better. But the freckly faced redhead got worse. He lay on the loveseat screaming, his mouth twisted to one side, his little limbs shaking, his eyes rolling up and back.
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Mark – Gold-Medal Heart
At age 14, sports defined Mark’s life. He started swimming with his older brothers’ swim team at age four, added soccer and baseball in grade school, and continued all three sports into high school. Mark’s dad noticed his son limping and was immediately alarmed when Mark told him he felt a lump on his bone.
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Monique – Back to School
One doctor called her “Princess.” Another nicknamed her “Sleeping Beauty,” because she was always asleep when he came into her hospital room. Her mom refers to her as “Mija” (pronounced Mee-ha), short for “Mi hija,” or “my daughter” in Spanish. Monique would probably call herself lucky and grateful.
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