My third born was in Nemours (AI DuPont) last October.  He decided the best hiding spot for a brother's quarter was his mouth and accidentally swallowed it.  The quarter got stuck in his esophagus and the local communit hospital decided to transport him to the children's hospital for it to be removed.  He had to spend the night before they scoped him.  He was 5 at the time, so the doctors put him asleep for the procdure. When the older boys and I came to get him, he went on about how it was like magic ~ they had him count, he went to sleep and when he woke up the quarter was gone.  He was then devouring tons of food and drinking lots as his body had emptied his stomach in an attempt to dislodge the quarter.

I have to say that we were so impressed with the facility and thankful it was something 'minor' compared to other children who are treated.  Not that anything choking related is truly minor. 

Both of my boys were admitted to the children's hospital as infants. 

My older son would not nurse, and I decided to bottle feed him.  He has a severe allergy to cow's milk.  Of course, I didn't know that then.  He and I were sent to the children's hospital by ambulance and he was given a slew of tests by neonatal specialists.  It was a difficult stay, but the staff of the hospital treated us so well, and it was comforting to know he was being diagnosed by people who understood babies.

I had no trouble breastfeeding my second son and was so happy about that, given what had happened with my first.  At five days old, he developed severe jaundice from my milk (due to blood type incompatibilities- turns out first born would have had the same probs if I had breastfed).  When we arrived at the hospital, his billirubin level was 29.9 (not sure what the measurement is).  At 30, they have to do a blood transfusion.  He was given the best care and did not have to have the transfusion. 

In both situations, the Lord blessed us with the best possible out-come.  Things could have been so much worse.  We praise Him for that.  The CH gave my babies the best care and did their part well. They were also so good to my husband and me, knowing how hard these situations were for new parents. 

My pediatrics internship was at Texas Children's Hospital. At orientation they told us they were the best Children's hospital in the world, and everyone I came in contact with during that 3 month experience acted that way- awesome place. I got to help out at their Brachial Plexus clinic and have since treated quite a few kiddos with that type of birth injury. I'm glad to read Nick is doing well after that. One of my highlights as a therapist was holding up a little girl under monkey bars and watching her lift her arm independently to reach for the bar!

We have not lived near a Children's hospital since I had children, but have had great care at regular hospitals for stitches and rocks up one nose- which she finally sneezed out! :)

We have had numerous visits to our Children's Hospital.  My second son has been there for:

• at three weeks old he had RSV and was in there for a week, twice in NICU
• at 14 months, he got really sick.  Thinking it was a really bad flu, Children's sent us to another hospital, because they were full.  After a week at the second hospital it was found that he had Herpes Encephalitis (herpes virus in the brain).  I won't give you the whole story here, but we eventually got back to Children's and were in out of the hospital for the next year.
• at three years old, he developed a spot on his eye, which they thought was herpes.  Back to Children's for almost a week, and then IV therapy at home again.  Thank the Lord that it was not herpes and we could end the IV therapy.
• at six he fell on his face (ouch), and Children's had to pull three of his teeth.  This was one of the worse experiences that we had at Children's.  They just were not very compassionate this time, and it made for a very hard experience for my son.

My other two boys have also had experiences at Children's:

• my first born, had a questionable mole on his hand removed
• my third born, was treated for a concussion 

I know we've had more, but those are the ones that come to mind.  All in all, Children's is a great hospital.

Goodness, some seasons of life I feel like I live at DC Children's.

7 y/o has had chronic problems with ear infections- he got 2 sets of tubes at Childrens (and a 3rd set w/ adenoids removed at a diff hosp). He spent a lot of time with his ENT. We had to rush to their ER this fall to have his boy parts sonogrammed because he was complaining of pain and the ped was concerned it was a minor torsion.

6 y/o was born with a cleft lip/palate so she's been there for surgery and follow up. We'll continue that into adulthood.

3 y/o has food allergies. Thankfully they're not life threatening anaphalaxis allergies. Not so good is that they're hard to diagnose GI mediated allergies - keep a food diary, and record resulting diarrhea, vomit, and sleep issues. Fun times. Initially we were at Children's every 2-4 weeks for weight checks and blood draws (his liver and pancreas 'levels' were off and he was chronically very anemic). His 2 broken arms and broken leg were treated by our local ortho.

We haven't had to visit them lately. I wonder if they miss us?

yes, we now live down the street from a pretty well known children's hospital- it has a special place in my heart because I volunteered there when I was a teen, and dh volunteered there when we were young marrieds because he was thinking about going to med. school.  All 4 of my kids were in the special care nursery at birth which was a special combined unit for the regular hospital and the children's hospital across the street-staffed by the children's hospital.  My 4th child had 2 minor heart defects and we had regular care at the children's hospital, and with 3 with asthma we were regulars at the emergency room.  I was soo excited to move closer to the hospital because of our middle of the night e.r. visits, but funny thing, once we moved the kids all started getting better.  Great thing about moving, one of the pediatric E.R. Doctor's is our neighbor, very handy...and it is nice to see a friendly face when we've had to go. It's a great hospital, they go the extra mile to make it a kid friendly place.

Wow, you all have such moving stories!  I am blessed to have not needed a Children's Hospital, yet, but Children's in Dallas has played a very important role in two of my dearest friends lives.  One friend of our family, our son's best friend, had suffered with terrible headaches and vomitting all his life.  At age 10 he was finally diagnosed with chiari syndrome.  He had brain surgery at Children's in Dallas.  We were there with them and I was so impressed with everything. 

My best friend just had her precious baby girl in July and at her 2nd ultrasound, weeks before delivery, discovered her daughter had severe hydrocephalous.  She is a nurse practitioner and has been very pleased with her surgeon and Children's in Dallas.  Her daughter had a shunt put in at 2 days old.  She has many challenges ahead of her, but she has been such a blessing to so many!

My daughter spent a week in the PICU at Phoenix Children's Hospital.  As scary as it was, that hospital became a comforting second home to us.  The staff is amazing...the nurses and child life specialists are SO caring.  We can't repay them enough.  So instead we participate in every fundraiser that we  can, and I ask other friends/family to participate too.

My oldest son was born with a heart defect that wasn't diagnosed until he was 2 weeks old and in heart failure.  He spent 2 wks. at the children's hospital in Atlanta.  We spent his very first Christmas there, rang in 2000 there (I was so afraid all the machines would stop working), and stayed at the Ronald McDonald house. 

Yes!!! In fact, I am about to start a topic that I would LOVE you all to read!!! It is so important!!!

In September, my daughter pulled a dresser and television onto her head, and suffered some severe fractures in her occipital lobe, her ear and around the back of her head. SHe was life flighted to Primary Children's Hospital, and they kept her there for a week.

Today, she is a perfect, healthy, no side effects little thing! Come see my other topic called Spoons For Scarlet!