Success Stories
Each day, children with incredible strength, bravery and willpower come through the doors of Children's Hospital seeking care and treatment. We are privileged to interact with these inspiring everyday heroes and their families. These are their stories.
Amazing Gracie
Gracie's father shares his family's story. "For years I drove by Children’s Hospital Oakland thinking, 'Please let me live without ever having to take my child to the hospital.' I couldn’t imagine the good that happened there, only the heartache and suffering. Then I learned first hand that this is where you go when your child has cancer."
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Caring for our smallest patients
Bringing a new life into the world is a miraculous journey. Each year, more than 450 of our community's most medically fragile infants begin the journey with a stay in the Children’s Hospital Oakland Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The NICU is at the core of our work; it is here that we care for the patients that no other institution can: the most medically complex, most vulnerable pre-term infants.
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Dylan's story
When Jim and Melanie first took their son to Children’s Hospital & Research Center at Oakland, Dylan was a pale emaciated 5-month-old. He hardly smiled and didn’t have enough energy to suck on a bottle. Cardiologist Gregg Helton, MD, knew immediately Dylan was a “cardiac baby.” An echocardiogram soon provided a clear picture: Dylan’s heart had a single ventricle anomaly; he was born with a left ventricle only.
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Laura's story
Last June, Kim was driving home with her daughter Laura, who had just had an MRI. Kim remembers that day like it was yesterday. Laura, then 10, turned to her mom and said, “You know mom, I learned a lot this year. I learned that there are a lot of children in pain and that life is serious.” But in the months to come, Laura would also learn that there is hope—and sometimes a cure—for children in pain and that life’s seriousness goes hand in hand with happiness.
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