Cardinal Glennon 60th Anniversary

Brightening the lives of Cardinal Glennon kids for 60 years Photos courtesy of Arteaga Photos Ltd.

JULY 5, 1956 Cardinal Glennon Memorial Hospital for Children welcomed its first patients, who were transferred from the pediatric unit at St. Mary’s Hospital. The facility’s fundraising booklet predicted the hospital would make great contributions to pediatric patient care, education and research.

It would give “infants and little children, irrespective of race, color or creed, health and welfare not for 1950, not for the year 2000, but for all the years that this community remains on the banks of the Mississippi. The fact that there are so few children’s hospitals in the Midwestern

states will result in doctors of a widesurrounding area using the new hospital’s facilities. It has been the experience of every outstanding children’s hospital that patients come from all sections of the United States and even from foreign countries . . . its influence and service should eventually become nationally known.”

Six decades later, SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital has far exceeded those ambitious hopes and dreams. Its influence and services are known not nationally but internationally. Its physicians and surgeons are leaders in developing therapies and technologies that push forward the boundaries of pediatrics

and deliver cures that were thought scarcely possible even one decade ago.

“Over the last 60 years, and particularly in my time, Cardinal Glennon has seen remarkable advances in what can be done to help children. This is a remarkable time to be alive, to be an American, to be in science and to be at Cardinal Glennon,” says Mike Vlastos, MD, director of the St. Louis Fetal Care Institute, one of the cutting-edge, world-class services at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon.

The hospital’s first pediatricians and surgeons toiled to develop treatments for rampant infectious diseases

M

uch of the building’s steel structure was in place when a cornerstone ceremony was held May 23, 1954.

Archbishop Ritter used a gold-plated trowel to place mortar below the massive stone as it was lowered into place. Dr. William Glennon, brother of the late Cardinal, stood at his side. “As this cornerstone symbolizes the unity of this building, so it should also symbolize to us Christ, who is the cornerstone of the Christian family,” Ritter said.

Placed inside a copper box within the cornerstone were newspapers, a photo of Cardinal Glennon and other mementos from his life, including a rosary and a prayer book he had given his brother. Also sealed in the box were yearbooks from the archdiocese and medical school and a “Sisters of St. Mary 75th Anniversary Jubilee Book.”

and congenital conditions that caused infant mortality and lifelong handicaps. New procedures corrected many “birth defects,” but it became apparent that birth often was too late for treatment.

After prenatal ultrasound brought the ability to detect abnormalities while babies remained in the womb, obstetricians and pediatricians could only wait and plan to do as best they could after birth.

Surgical correction of defects during the fetal period began at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon just five years ago. The Fetal Care Institute is one of just a handful of such centers and one of the most productive. Its surgeons have performed approximately 200 fetal interventions and its staff has guided 1,000 additional families gestation and planned for care after delivery.

“It is a career dream come true, being at the commencement and watching the blossoming of the St. Louis Fetal Care Institute,” says Vlastos, also an assistant professor of medicine at Saint Louis University. “It is beyond any expectation I could have held when

I went into medicine.”

The institute’s surgeons have corrected urinary obstructions and blood flow defects that could have irreparably injured the kidneys, lungs and heart prior to birth, Vlastos says.

“We have taken amniotic bands off in the womb so the babies can move forward with all their arms and legs in place. We have helped 50 children with spina bifida have a better chance of walking and living without shunts in their brains.”

“SSM Health Cardinal Glennon, SSM Health and Saint Louis University School of Medicine, as well as generous donors to SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Foundation, have made the Fetal Care Institute one of many outstanding programs at the hospital,” Vlastos says.

“The Fetal Care Institute is one spot in the remarkable brightness of Cardinal Glennon. We have outstanding practitioners in every department and Lord knows none of this would be possible without the great nursing staff we have. There appears to be no limits to be found within this great culture of helping children, focusing scientific inquiry

with philanthropy and the support of our administrators. We can continue to shoot for the stars.”

In the hospital’s first decades its emergency unit and beds were filled with children suffering from infectious diseases that often were fatal.

“We are seeing much less infectious disease because of immunization programs,” says Robert W. Wilmott, MD, pediatrician-in-chief. “Some diseases go away and others come in to replace them.”

While capabilities have grown at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon, “I like to think one thing remains the same, which is patient-centered care,” Wilmott says. “We are focused on children and serving the needy children of the city who are, for the most part, poor. At the same time we have a medical school faculty that wants to discover cures for tomorrow as well as serving the children we have today.”

In the past decade, SSM Health Cardinal Glennon’s pediatric medical staff tripled to 121 full-time and 45 part-time physicians, Wilmott says.

The surgical staff has grown by 50%, says Dennis W. Vane, MD, surgeon-in-chief. “We now have five board-certified pediatric general surgeons. We also have 27 pediatric surgeons in otolaryngology, neurology, plastic, urology, cardiothoracic, ophthalmological and dental surgery.”

SSM Health Cardinal Glennon has been ranked highly among national peers by U.S. News and World Report magazine for gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery; cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery; neonatology

and nephrology.

“And not all services are ranked by the magazine,” says Sherlyn Hailstone, who came to the hospital in 2008 and retired as president in 2014. “The magazine does not have a ranking for pediatric surgery or tremendous programs such as the autism center.

Historically Cardinal Glennon has done so much for children with developmental disabilities. The hospital has outstanding programs that have state and national recognition and are equal to any in the country.”

“All the specialists seem to be younger and younger every year but they are so proficient,” says another proud retired leader, Doug Ries, who came to the hospital in 1981 and remained president until 2008. “They are worldclass experts in their disciplines. They

know what to do and how to carry it out in the least painful way for their patients.”

“There is a breadth of knowledge that exists here, in all of the subspecialties, that is cutting edge, state of the art,” Vane says. “The surgeons here are at the forefront of their fields.

We are able to recruit the best surgeons available. The surgical reputation of the hospital has changed dramatically in the past eight years.”

Growth was made possible by the community support that built the hospital’s new South Wing, with private patient rooms and out-patient clinics, and the North Wing’s modern operating rooms, heart center and intensive care units, along with the latest technology in all.

“When young surgeons walk in

demonstrated the hiring of additional faculty would be sustainable based on the demand for services.”

“We have added many doctors and programs,” Wilmott says. “The Sherlyn Hailstone & Archbishop Robert J. Carlson effect has been to attract a lot more patients, so we are bursting at the seams for offices, for outpatient space and often for in-patient beds.”

“They are doing procedures that probably were not even dreamt of when I came here in the early 80s,” Ries says. “Their ability to successfully treat life-threatening disease and injury knows no bounds. The more they grow the more proficient and experienced staff they recruit. They complement that with nursing Doug Ries support and the ancillary services and the reputation of Cardinal Glennon they see all of the best equipment continues to rise up the charts.” in the world, not a promise to see it

next year,” Vane says. “The hospital The Idea administration has the same attitude that we do – we all want to take care Before World War II interrupted, of kids. If a child doesn’t have any the Sisters of St. Mary contemplated a insurance, there is never a question building addition for the overflowing about providing his care. Does the kid pediatric division at SSM Health St. need it? The administration will find Mary’s Hospital in Richmond Heights. the money for it.”

After the war thousands of young men The building expansions allowed came home and started families. The the hospital to accept more patients resulting baby boom overwhelmed and even create new services. medical facilities that had not “There were tremendous wait times expanded in decades. to see specialists,” Hailstone recalls.

St. Louis Archbishop John Ritter “We put together business plans that was considering a tribute to Cardinal

John Joseph Glennon, who led the Archdiocese from 1903 to 1946. Peter G. Danis Sr., MD, in 1949 enlisted the city’s most prominent Catholics and approached Ritter with a proposal.

Danis, chairman of pediatrics at Saint Louis University and a renowned St. Louis pediatrician, urged Ritter to build a memorial hospital that would meet the needs of young people and enhance educational programs and research in the emerging field of pediatrics.

“He Always Loved the Children” John Joseph Glennon, born in Kinnegard, Ireland, arrived in St. Louis in 1903 when the Mississippi River still truly divided the United States. Paved roads ended just beyond the western city limits. The Archdiocese of St. Louis covered all of eastern Missouri, from Iowa to Arkansas.

Glennon was six feet and four inches tall and was described by an historian as “tall, impressive, boyishly handsome, eloquent and intelligent.”

His voice, charm and imagination

earned the nickname “Great Orator” and he was invited to preach across the country and abroad.

He also became known as the “Great Builder.” He oversaw the construction of 100 churches and schools, ordained 4,700 priests and administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to 225,000 Catholics.

He had a special “love for the little ones,” according to a 1946 magazine article. “Cardinal Glennon’s affability and his knowledge of child psychology stood him in good stead with the little children, whose love he cherished and whose innocence he championed with all his power in his sermons and the many pronouncements to the press on social and moral questions.”

Christmas Eve of 1945 brought the announcement from Pope Pius XII of a new class of Cardinals that included Glennon – then only the sixth Cardinal appointed to the United States. He received his Cardinal’s hat, on the throne of St. Peter’s at the Vatican, on February 21, 1946.

Glennon contracted a cold in Rome and developed pneumonia while visiting Dublin before returning to St. Louis. He died on March 9, 1946.

The St. Louis Archdiocese then held 17 Catholic hospitals that cared for about 67,000 patients annually. In a 1952 St. Louis Globe-Democrat column, William P. Glennon, MD, encouraged contributions to hospital memorializing his brother.

Dr. Glennon traveled from Ireland to visit his older brother in 1906 and stayed. He had been surgeon-in-chief of St. John’s Hospital since 1924.

Sr. Noreen McGowan, FSM

Peter Danis, MD

“I’ve long realized the serious shortage of specialized facilities for the care of children. We don’t have enough hospital beds for them, we don’t have enough clinics for the care of out-patients, we don’t have enough research equipment for the study of children’s diseases, and we lack sufficient training facilities for specialists in pediatrics,” Dr. Glennon wrote. “It’s providential that a children’s hospital should have been selected as the memorial, for I know of few things dearer to John than the greater health and better care for youngsters.”

then were no medical schools in the Northwest, so he came to Saint Louis University where two distant cousins were enrolled.

Danis received his medical degree in 1931. He intended to become a surgeon but was attracted to pediatrics while a resident at SSM Health St. Mary’s.

Ritter agreed that a pediatric hospital would make an appropriate memorial for Glennon. A respected national hospital consulting company found that St. Louis had not kept pace with its rising birth rate (doubled in two decades) and lagged behind comparable areas in childhood health indicators.

Pediatric hospital beds had not increased in two decades. The infant death rate was higher than in 14 comparable American cities. There were no facilities for premature babies nor any specialized care for teenagers.

At Firmin Desloge Hospital there was a continuous waiting list of 30 to 75 children needing surgery. Only 75 of Missouri’s 3,973 physicians were pediatricians.

The consultants argued that a

Circumstance Peter Danis was born in Ottawa. His father died when he was 4 years old and his mother when he was 7. He then lived with a beloved grandmother who died while he was in high school so he moved to Spokane, WA, to live with an aunt.

He worked summers as a lumberjack and looked forward to studying medicine after high school. There

Mike Vlastos, MD, Angela Ford and Delaney Batchelder

pediatric hospital was needed in the Midwest to boost the training of pediatricians and “materially aid” the pursuit of new treatments.

“Research in the diseases of childhood, practically speaking, is still in the pioneer stage,” the report concluded.

Fundraising began in 1950 and construction commenced in 1954 on a site across Grand Boulevard from Saint Louis University School of Medicine and across Vista Avenue from Firmin Desloge (now SSM Health Saint Louis University) Hospital.

Cleared from the site was the decaying mansion built in 1854 by Capt. John J. Roe, who operated a riverboat fleet. From his third-story turret on Vista Avenue he observed movements on the Mississippi.

Danis, who died in 1985 at the age of 75, served as the first medical director and chief-of-staff. In 1979, the hospital’s 200-seat auditorium was named in his honor.

Ritter appointed Leo J. Wieck, treasurer of May Department Stores

Company, to chair the fundraising drive. Rev. Lloyd A. Sullivan, pastor of the Old Cathedral, represented the Archdiocese on the building committee.

The campaign’s list of officers and sponsors was a “who’s who” of St. Louis. From brewing were the names Busch, Faust and Griesedieck. From retailing came Baer, Edison and May, from aviation McDonnell and Parks.

E. Lansing Ray, publisher of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, had backed Charles A. Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis.

Fred M. Saigh owned the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team.

Donations totaled $6.2 million.

Thousands of schoolchildren donated dimes, each one purchasing a brick for the building.

Largest, Most Complete and Scientifically Up-to-Date Building plans incorporated the latest technology in surgery, radiology, laboratories, pharmacy and medical records. Danis and the medical school

recruited young physicians, surgeons and nurses who were pioneers in their pediatric subspecialties and would become leaders in their fields.

Among them was J. Eugene Lewis, MD, chief of pediatric general surgery, and John Schweiss, MD, director of anesthesiology. Armand Brodeur, M.D., director of radiology, became internationally known for reducing x-ray exposure in children.

Vallee Willman, MD, cardiac surgeon, performed the first pediatric openheart procedures in the western United States.

Sr. Noreen McGowan, FSM, was the first nursing director at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon and taught for many years at the Saint Louis University School of Nursing. For decades most of the hospital’s nurses were her former students.

Sr. Noreen retired in 1986 but continued to arrive every weekday morning as the volunteer family liaison in the surgery waiting room.

She continued to volunteer until 2010, when she was 95 years old. She passed away at the age of 97 in 2012.

DANA BROWN NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT

then 1957 In its first year Cardinal Glennon Memorial Hospital cared for 43,021 children, including 4,179 inpatients, and provided 2,136 surgical procedures.

The St. Louis area’s first heartlung machine, built for about $1,000, supported 20 children during successful open-heart surgeries.

The first neonatal care unit in St. Louis opened.

Today: Dana Brown Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Neonatology is one of the busiest sub-specialties in pediatric hospital medicine.

“We admit 800 to 900 neonates every year,” says Farouk Sadiq, MD, director of neonatology, who joined the hospital staff in 1980.

“The advancement in our capabilities is incredible. The care of these babies is completely different in our sophistication and technology

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and even our attention to the babies’ physical and developmental needs,” he says.

Premature lungs pose the greatest risk to premature babies. The introduction of surfactant, a protein that relaxes lung surfaces and enhances breathing, “was the first big thing,” says Sadiq, a Saint Louis University associate professor of pediatrics.

Next came ventilators that are better able to breathe – and more safely -- for tiny lungs. “The ventilators can be fine-tuned to even the smallest premature babies,” Sadiq says.

The SSM Health Cardinal Glennon staff pioneered the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in pediatrics. ECMO provides heart and lung support during acute phases of illness.

“ECMO was considered experimental in the early 1980s,” Sadiq says. “Now it is a routine part of care. If the baby has very severe lung disease and we need to rest the lungs for a few days, we can put

them on ECMO.” Three decades ago infants born at 26 weeks of gestation faced long odds to survive. “Now the survival for 24-week babies is in the upper 80 to 90%,” Sadiq says. “We are saving those babies without any increase in neurologic handicaps than what we used to see at 28 weeks.”

New knowledge and technology enables neonatal doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists to expand their goals.

“Before the focus was mainly on helping babies survive,” Sadiq says.

“Now we are more attuned to the babies’ needs for neurodevelopment.

We do what we call skin-to-skin care – even the very premature baby is laid directly on the mom’s skin.

That is very soothing and calming to the baby and is of tremendous psychological benefit to the mother and promotes breast milk production.”

Privacy for skin-to-skin care is possible in the neonatal intensive care unit built with support from

the Dana Brown Charitable Trust, bequeathed in the estate of the well-known St. Louis personality, outdoorsman and coffee marketer who died in 1994.

“When we moved here all of our patients had private rooms, which really helps the babies, families and nurses,” says Cristie Rossel, RN, DNP, director of the neonatal unit.

“The environment is quieter, which lets the babies sleep.”

“Without community support we would not have this unit,” she says.

“The Dana Brown Trust gave us the money to help build the unit and we have received equipment donations from donors. The community is key to providing exceptional services.”

“Our family support programs are funded by the Foundation with money from the community so we can address the individualized development needs of the babies,” Sadiq says. “All of these things contribute to better outcomes.”

1962

1958

1966

A $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare established a clinic for the evaluation of mentally handicapped children.

The March of Dimes Birth Defects Center opened for treatment of congenital thoracic and gastrointestinal defects. As the hospital celebrated its 10th anniversary its emergency department had become one of the busiest pediatric trauma centers in the country and later would become the first Missouri hospital designated as a Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center.

1959 A virus research laboratory is established with a grant from the St. Louis Children’s Foundation.

The Child Abuse Management/ Sexual Abuse Management Team formed for “consistent, efficient management of cases of child abuse, sexual abuse and neglect.”

1963 Two patient wings with 33 additional beds opened on the fourth floor, which initially housed student nurses. The first comprehensive multidisciplinary hemophiliac treatment center in the Midwest was founded.

1964 Construction began on the first building addition. Glennon Hall, built as a student-nurse residence, now holds Danis Pediatrics and physician offices.

Today: The Dan Dierdorf Emergency and Trauma Center In 2016 the service, known as the Dan Dierdorf Emergency and Trauma Center, will receive a record 60,000 children and adolescents.

The center, which serves a 200-mile radius, has been the region’s busiest pediatric emergency department for two years.

“We see everything from a child with a diaper rash or a cold to an infant who was found without blood pressure or a pulse,” says Robert G. Flood, MD, director of pediatric emergency medicine and a professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University.

“As a major trauma center we see very sick children. We also are called a quaternary referral center, meaning tertiary-care referral centers will send patients to us for our expertise,” he says. “We have physicians in every pediatric specialty and sub-specialty, such as pediatric neurosurgery, that other hospitals may not have. In addition, our specialized and compassionate nursing staff is outstanding.”

DAN DIERDORF EMERGENCY & TRAUMA CENTER

then The department is named in honor of the former St. Louis Cardinals football player, network sports broadcaster and member of the College and Pro Football Hall of Fame. It has been supported with proceeds from the annual Dierdorf-Pronger Golf Tournament and other philanthropic donations.

“We have MRI, ultrasound and high-speed CAT scanners 24 hours a day. There is nothing out there that we don’t have.

We are blessed, truly,” Flood says.

“The facilities are beautiful. We have made changes in operations so the patients feel valued during every step of their visit and the entire patient experience is excellent.

It is the final human touch that makes it different here at Cardinal Glennon.”

1967 The first medical genetics center in Missouri opened. SSM Health

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Cardinal Glennon received an “Oxygenaire Portable Incubator” for infants, the first shipped from the English manufacturer to a hospital in the Midwest.

1972 The “Mother Mary Concordia Center” for hearing tests opened with proceeds from the annual Booster Fund Drive, doubling capacity for audiograms. The center was named for the late Mother Mary Concordia, SSM, who was superior general of the Sisters of St. Mary for 37 years.

1974 SSM Health Cardinal Glennon opened the Midwest’s first regional poison control center.

SSM Health Cardinal Glennon’s emergency room was the country’s second-busiest pediatric emergency department.

1975 St. Louis Cardinal’s great Stan Musial served as honorary chairman of a $5 million fundraising campaign for building expansion.

Today: Homers for Health and K’s for Kids “Stan the Man” is one of many St. Louis sports figures who have offered a hand to the children at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon.

The hospital’s building campaign committee included Fred M. Saigh, owner of the St. Louis Cardinals, and Sidney Salomon Jr., who later established the St. Louis Blues hockey team. Countless professional athletes have visited the hospital on special occasions,

STAN THE MAN - A CHAMPION FOR KIDS

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

sometimes forming lasting bonds with kids and families.

From 1955 through 1975 one of the hospital’s largest fundraising activities was an annual exhibitionseason football game featuring the National Football League Cardinals, first of Chicago and later St. Louis.

From 1998 through 2005 the St. Louis Blues raised funds through “Goals for Glennon.”

In 2012 the Homers for Health K’s for Kids campaign was launched by St. Louis Cardinals left-fielder Matt Holliday and his wife Leslee, a member of the Foundation’s Board of Governors.

K’s for Kids was added in 2014.

In the first four seasons more than $2.7 million was raised to benefit sick and injured children at the hospital.

Along with Holliday, Chairmen of Homers for Health and K’s for Kids have included many heroes of the Cardinals’ recent runs toward the World Series – David Freese, Allen Craig, Jason Motte, Matt Adams, Adam Wainwright, Matt Carpenter and Trevor Rosenthal.

The Hollidays and other Cardinals encourage donations through media campaigns and personal appearances. Fans are invited to pledge as little as 25

cents for every home run hit or strikeout pitched by a Cardinal in regular and post-season games.

Funds raised through the first three seasons of the Cardinal affiliation helped create childfriendly spaces in The Costas Center, Imaging Center and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Thanks to these updated accommodations, children facing procedures feel less stress while undergoing their treatments. Funds from 2015 and 2016 will support the immediate needs of the hospital, including renovation of the inpatient cancer care floor.

1979 The Medical Air Rescue Corps was launched to provide helicopter transportation for patients referred to the SSM Health Cardinal Glennon and SSM Health Saint Louis University hospitals.

THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS DEVELOPMENTAL CENTER

then Today: The SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Transport Team The SSM Health Cardinal Glennon transport team first carried neonates and added teams equipped for pediatric patients in 1991. About 1,300 patients are brought to the hospital each year by ground ambulance or helicopter.

“We bring premature babies and children who have trauma, surgical emergencies, respiratory problems and long-term health problems that suddenly require transport,” says Cristie Rossel, RN, DNP, director of the neonatal care unit and transport team.

The transport of intensive-care patients began before the invention of mobile equipment, she says.

Breathing assistance through manual ventilation – a handoperated air bag -- was required.

“Now we have a transport ventilator that can almost simulate what the patient has in a room at

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the hospital,” Rossel says. “The technology and education are so much better. The nurses take a computer to do their charting and look up information on therapies.

We’re getting new cooling blankets so we can start some treatments earlier.”

While helicopter transports reduced the time of some patient transfers from hours to fractions of an hour, the benefits of still-quicker responses were realized. In 2011 the hospital’s transport services expanded with off-site team based in Cape Girardeau, MO. A team was based in Hannibal, MO, in 2015.

“Those teams bring our staff to communities in southern Illinois and eastern Missouri much more quickly,” Rossel says. “That is a big benefit to emergency rooms where people aren’t used to taking care of really sick kids.”

1981 The Knights of Columbus Developmental Center opened to provide multidisciplinary care for children with developmental delays and handicaps.

Today: The Knights of Columbus Developmental Center The Knights of Columbus Center was founded with a team of three child-development specialists.

Recently moved to an expansive home of its own on the SSM Health Cardinal Glennon campus, the center now is staffed by 19 experts in pediatrics, neurology, psychiatry, psychology, speechlanguage pathology, occupational therapy, education and research plus Higgins, the therapy dog.

The larger Knights Center has allowed the staff to see about three times as many patients as it could

in 2010. Referrals continue to grow through increased emphasis on screening for autism and other developmental disorders.

“Parents and clinicians are more aware of developmental disabilities.

Universal screening has been recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics at 18, 24 and 30 months,” said Rolanda Maxim Gott, MD, the hospital’s director of developmental pediatrics and an assistant professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at Saint Louis University.

In 2007 the center was designated a Missouri Center for Autism by the Department of Mental Health.

“From 30 to 40% of our patients are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders and we see children with many other disabilities – attention deficient hyperactivity disorder and developmental delays are the other main diagnoses.”

“We have preschoolers who are non-verbal and help them learn to communicate. the PEERS group therapy program for adolescent, higher-functioning autism kids who are learning social skill development. There are so many opportunities here,” said Donna Gfeller, PhD, the center’s director of psychology and psychiatry and adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University.

The center’s new home, funded with the support of the Knights of Columbus of Missouri and Illinois, welcomes patients to an environment better suited for

children and teens who may be bothered by excessive stimulation.

“We have spacious, childfriendly, beautiful rooms that are appropriate for children with disabilities. They do not feel that they are in a hospital. We are in a separate oasis where they aren’t scared by ambulances and a lot of people,” Maxim Gott says.

“In 2010 we had 1,899 patient visits. Last year we had more than 4,800,” says Gfeller, who joined the hospital staff in 1986 and became a director of the Knights Center in 2010.

“Things have changed dramatically in terms of the array of services and specialized programs we offer,” Gfeller says.

A family advisory committee assists the center’s patients with its own projects and advises the staff on patient and family needs.

“Rolanda often does presentations at the Knights’ events,” Gfeller says.

“We usually have a family talk about what the Knights of Columbus Center has meant to them. It almost makes you cry because it is so moving . . . we can clearly see that we have made a significant difference in these families’ lives. The Knights love and cherish this place.”

1982 The 30-bed SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Pediatric Unit opened at SSM Health St. Joseph Hospital – St. Charles, the region’s first

collaboration between a pediatric hospital and community hospital.

1983 Dr. Armand E. Brodeur announced that SSM Health Cardinal Glennon would house the world’s first prenatal diagnostic center using magnetic resonance imaging, which utilizes a magnetic field and pulses of radio wave energy to make images rather than potentially harmful x-rays.

Today: Imaging Center at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Dr. Brodeur’s radiology department now is known as the Imaging Center because diagnostic imaging wields a far wider variety of tools than only x-rays.

“We have come a long way,” says Shannon Farmakis, MD, medical director of diagnostic imaging at the hospital. “In 1956 radiology was limited to x-rays and fluoroscopy exams. CT (computed tomography) didn’t come until the 1970s. It was followed by MRI (magnetic

IMAGING CENTER

then resonance imaging) in the 1980s.

Ultrasound has been around for years, but as time goes on the quality of those exams and our capabilities in using it have far improved.

“We are able to see inside the human body in much greater detail.

Some imaging modalities are not good for lungs and soft tissues, others are not good for bones,” she says. “In some way or another we are able to see most of the body while focusing our attention on decreasing radiation doses. We could safely say there isn’t a patient at the hospital who doesn’t get some form of imaging at some point.”

In 2013, the department moved into a new suite holding the latest magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and low-dose x-ray equipment. The $8.7 million wing was built with $6.5 million in donations to the Foundation.

This year the center opened a second-phase suite that contains two new fluoroscopy and digital radiology rooms, a new interventional radiology

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suite, new ultrasound rooms and an expansion of the sedation suite. This followed the March 2015 opening of a nuclear medicine suite with a SPECT CT that produces threedimensional images of functioning tissues. Radioisotopes are injected into the bloodstream, ingested or inhaled. The radioactive materials bind to specific tissues and enable visual differentiation.

Dr. Brodeur wrote some of the first textbooks on pediatric radiology and lectured around the world on the importance of reducing radiation exposure in growing children, whose tissues are more sensitive to radiation injury. The department he once led has continued to create techniques for producing better images at reduced x-ray dosage. Recently the center switched to digital radiology, which creates x-ray images without use of film.

“The use of digital imaging allows us to acquire images faster and at a much lower radiation dose. The images appear within three seconds,

providing a much faster turnaround time,” said Deborah Joseph, BHA, RT(R), director of diagnostic imaging.

“We performed a time study and found that we could complete three exams in the digital room in the same time it took to complete one exam in a conventional radiology room.”

“The state-of-the-art equipment acquired in our recent expansion would not have been possible without the help of the Foundation,” she says. “Our ultrasound machines allow us to achieve images of much higher quality than in years past. We can visualize vascular malformations in tissues deeper in the body and deeper in bigger children. Before we might have needed to use CT imaging. This is a great step forward.”

“There is a benefit to each type of imaging we have,” says Joseph. “Our goal is to provide quality, accountable health care, utilizing the most appropriate imaging at the lowest radiation dose to the patient. It is essential that we provide the answers so these children can pursue the next

step of their medical path.”

The capabilities continue to grow.

“With a generous donation from the Glennon Guild, we were able to purchase a new ultrasound machine with the latest technology. We are doing research in shear wave elastography, a form of ultrasound,” Farmakis says. “It measures the stiffness of organs, particularly the liver. We are determining whether it can predict the degree of liver fibrosis or scarring. Right now the only way that liver disease can be measured is by a liver biopsy.”

The center has introduced MR urography, which can replace a nuclear medicine study and its radiation exposure, with a magnetic resonance imaging study of blood flow and urine production of the kidneys.

The ability to produce threedimensional images on computer screens has led to the construction of 3-D printed heart models that guide surgeons through complex reconstructions.

“We are pushing the envelope,” Farmakis says. “We already are using new technologies that are not available in many pediatric centers across the country. The coordinated efforts of SSM Health and the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Foundation have allowed us the opportunity to provide the highest quality care in a pediatriccentered environment with the latest technology available.”

1984 ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) was used for the first time on a patient in respiratory distress. SSM Health Cardinal Glennon was one of the country’s eight pediatric hospitals with ECMO capability.

1985 Missouri’s first clinic for neurofibromatosis, then known as “elephant man’s disease,” opened.

1986 First heart transplant performed at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon when a week-old infant, then the secondyoungest child ever to receive a donated heart, was given the organ of a 3-month-old boy fatally injured in an auto accident.

1989 The first liver transplant is performed at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon for an 8-year-old boy born with biliary atresia.

1990 Philip Clinton Jones, 4-years-old, of Cincinnati, Ohio, becomes the first child at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon to receive a cochlear implant to restore hearing.

1988

1991

SSM Health Cardinal Glennon and SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital assisted the state of Illinois in launching the Southern Illinois Perinatal Program, which offers maternity and newborn care services through 27 hospitals.

Comprehensive immunodeficiency clinic founded for children infected with the AIDS virus.

The Pediatric Sleep Disorders Center, the first in St. Louis, and the Pediatric Rehabilitation Unit are opened.

1992 A hemodialysis unit is organized for children with kidney disease.

PEDIATRIC HYBRID CARDIAC CATHETERIZATION LAB

then 1994 A bone marrow transplant unit opened. Planning began for the St. Louis Cord Blood Bank.

Today: St. Louis Cord Blood Bank provides global treatments and innovation “In 1994 the use of cord blood for transplantation was relatively investigational. Recent studies demonstrated that cord blood worked well in treating bone marrow failures and malignancies in the pediatric population. Here at Cardinal Glennon, Dr. Donna Wall was struggling to find matched donors for her patients,” says Donna Regan, MT, (ASCP), SBB, director of the St. Louis Cord Blood Bank and Cellular Therapy Laboratory.

Umbilical cord blood is routinely discarded as medical waste after a baby’s birth. After discovering that cord blood was a rich source of stem cells, scientists considered that it

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could be a useful resource, along with bone marrow, for transplantation in treatment of cancer, leukemia and other blood diseases.

The bank engaged obstetricians at SSM Health St. Mary’s to collect cord blood and experimented with processing methods in the laboratory.

On January 26, 1996, the first clinically-available unit was banked.

In February 1997 the first unit was released for transplant at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon.

To date the bank has exported 2,700 blood units to 40 states in the US and 35 foreign countries. About 20% of units have been distributed internationally. Patients have ranged in age from 10 days to 71 years.

The St. Louis Cord Blood Bank has become another service that has exceeded the founders’ hopes that SSM Health Cardinal Glennon would achieve national significance.

When the bank was founded, standards and regulations for cord blood banking and transplantation did not exist. The staff of the

bank, in a collaborative effort with colleagues across the country, assisted in developing accreditation standards and federal regulations that were adopted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In 2013 the St. Louis Cord Blood Bank received licensure approval from the FDA to manufacture and distribute cord blood-derived stem cell products, which are classified as biologic drugs. The bank was the fourth center to receive approval and is only one of six licensed in the U.S. “Since 1994 we have contributed our data to the national repository which evaluates the success of these treatments in a variety of diseases and patient populations,” Regan says.

“That evidence has led to well-defined safety and quality banking criteria and expanded applications.”

It initially was thought that a cord blood unit would be sufficient to treat only children. “The cell dose is critical.

Over time we have learned how to overcome the cell dose limitations, sometimes by combining units.

Initially 100% of our products were used in the pediatric population but now about two-thirds of our products are distributed for use in adults,” Regan says.

Physicians have used cord blood to treat 80 diseases and efforts are underway to expand its use.

“Cord blood was used to reconstitute hematopoiesis, the blood-forming system in patients.

Research is being conducted today that will support immunotherapy and regenerative medicine,” she says.

The Cord Blood Bank’s 31,000 stored units, frozen in liquid nitrogen, were collected through the donations of altruistic mothers and the volunteer efforts of doctors, nurse midwives and labor/delivery nurses at 35 hospitals in eastern Missouri, southern Illinois and the Kansas City region.

“In addition to advancing cures, staff members at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon also are influencing policy and creating the standards by which the field is regulated,” says Regan, who is the current president of the American Association of Blood Banks. “The efforts of this regional community truly have a global footprint.”

1995 P. Syam Rao, MD, then director of pediatric cardiology, performed the area’s first non-invasive heart repair procedure utilizing a device inserted through a catheter. The 1-yearold girl, born with a hole between

the chambers of her heart, was discharged the next day.

Today: Pediatric Hybrid Cardiac Catheterization Lab Two decades later, interventional cardiology has replaced conventional surgery as the standard of care for many pediatric heart conditions.

The Dorothy & Larry Dallas Heart Center at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon employs two interventional cardiologists, Saar Danon, MD, and Saadeh Al-Jureidini, MD, director of cardiac catheterization and interventional programs.

Cardiac catheterization, long a standard diagnostic procedure, uses a thin, hollow tube that is inserted into a large blood vessel (usually at the thigh) and guided toward the heart. Interventional cardiology added tiny devices that could travel through the catheter to close, enlarge or open holes in the heart’s chambers or vessels.

“We do 250 to 300 interventional procedures a year. Each procedure eliminates the need for a surgery,” says Jureidini, who joined the hospital staff in 1984. “Our interventional arena has expanded to the closure of atrial septal defects and ventricular septal defects and patent ductus arteriosus. We can remedy coarctation of the aorta or open branch pulmonary arteries by either balloon or stent. We can open a pulmonic valve or an aortic valve without any need of surgery.”

The next evolution in cardiac care was the hybrid procedure which combines the skills of the cardiothoracic surgeon and interventional cardiologist. In 2011 a pediatric hybrid cardiac catheterization lab was added to the Dallas Heart Center. It was fitted with the technology that enables the cardiologist and surgeon to carry out their stages of procedures in one operation.

One hybrid procedure has improved outcomes for children born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a complex defect that prevents the heart from pumping blood throughout the body. The left side of the heart is underdeveloped, resulting in multiple defects impairing blood circulation.

The Norwood procedure is a three-phase operation created to correct hypoplastic left heart. The first phase, however, is extremely risky for infants weighing less than 5.5 pounds, Jureidini says.

“For those patients, the risk of a Norwood is probably 50%. When we do the hybrid procedure the risk is less

2007 SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Pediatric Emergency Department opened at St. Anthony’s Medical Center in south St. Louis County.

2008 than 5% and we delay the need for the Norwood until the patient has grown,” he says.

“About 15 years ago we were still very concerned about the outcomes of interventional procedures.

Now I feel so comfortable in recommending them to families. It is a very, very nice feeling.”

1998 The hematology/oncology service was named the Bob Costas Cancer Center in honor of the broadcaster and long-time hospital supporter.

The Footprints program, providing family support and research in pediatric end-of-life care, is created with support from the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation.

2000 A new main entrance and two outdoor rest areas, the Dana Brown Family Plaza and Brennan Courtyard, were completed.

2002 SSM Health became the first health care organization to receive the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award from the US Department of Commerce. It cited SSM Health Cardinal Glennon’s “KIDS RULE” customer service program and “Footprints” among the system’s “best practices.”

2003 An expanded emergency department and a new 48-bed patient-care wing, including an enlarged ambulatory care center, are opened.

2004 SSM Health Cardinal Glennon becomes the first pediatric hospital to receive the Missouri Quality Award from the Excellence in Missouri Foundation.

The Bob Costas Chair of Pediatric Medicine was endowed by the Board of Governors of the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Foundation.

2009 The Dorothy and Larry Dallas Heart Center is opened following an estate gift from the former Falstaff Brewing Company executive in honor of his late wife.

Today: The Dallas Heart Center Creates “A Legacy that is Huge” “Sixty years ago pediatric cardiologists assessed heart disease with an electrocardiogram, a chest x-ray and a stethoscope. For children who were born with severe heart conditions, in many cases there were no surgical or medical options for them and they did not survive,” says Kenneth O. Schowengerdt Jr., MD, director of cardiology.

“Things have completely changed.

Now the majority of those cardiac conditions can be successfully treated surgically and medically.

Those children are surviving into

adulthood and doing well.”

Schowengerdt holds the WieckSullivan Chair of Pediatric Medicine, endowed by Cardinal Glennon Children’s Foundation in honor of the chairmen of the hospital’s building campaign -- Leo J. Wieck, treasurer of May Department Stores Company, and the Rev. Lloyd A. Sullivan, pastor of the Old Cathedral and representative of the Archdiocese.

Detailed diagnosis of heart defects in the early days often occurred only during surgery when the heart’s anatomy could be seen directly. The Dallas Heart Center now houses an array of imaging modalities that provide precise, non-invasive visualization of cardiac anatomy and function, often without radiation exposure.

“We currently have echocardiography machines that can provide exquisite detail of the cardiac anatomy and we have refined MRI and CT imaging over time,” Schowengerdt says.

Along with improved technology, advances in medicine and surgery

have led to procedures to successfully treat the majority of cardiac defects. The Dallas Heart Center allows cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons to work together in caring for patients.

“Before the Dallas Heart Center opened we had a very small cardiology area -- three exam rooms and a very small area for interpreting echocardiograms,” Schowengerdt says. “The Dallas Heart Center enlarged our space significantly to nine exam rooms and various work areas, a large echo reading room and a dedicated echo lab with multiple echo procedure rooms.”

The number of cardiology faculty physicans has nearly tripled in the past decade to 11. In 2011 cardiothoracic surgery director Andrew Fiore, MD, was joined by a second cardiothoracic surgeon, Charles Huddleston, MD. “We reached the point where we needed two experienced surgeons.

That was another milestone,” Schowengerdt says.

The Dallas Heart Center serves families from a large swath of eastern Missouri and southern Illinois and sees approximately 450 outpatients monthly.

“The Dallas family legacy here is enormous. The growth and development of the cardiac program has resulted from the endowment from Dorothy and Larry Dallas.

Once the larger, dedicated heart center was in place, the recruiting of specialized cardiologists became

feasible and the division was able to grow,” Schowengerdt says.

“As the division grew, the hospital and Foundation continued to help us add new technology. Those contributions set the ball rolling and made it possible for us to achieve our national ranking as an outstanding pediatric program by US News and World Report.”

2009 The hospital’s out-patient primary care clinic, University Pediatrics, was renamed Danis Pediatrics in honor of Peter G. Danis, MD, a founder of SSM Health Cardinal Glennon and its first pediatrician-in-chief.

Today: Danis Pediatric Center Continues the Missions Dr. Danis envisioned three missions for the new hospital – patient care, education and research. All continue to be cornerstones, particularly in the Danis Pediatric Center.

“Cardinal Ritter and Dr. Danis would be very impressed to see where the

clinic has gone since its inception.

One of the missions of this hospital 60 years ago was to create a home for the underserved children of the city who otherwise wouldn’t have pediatric medical services,” says Matthew Broom, MD, a pediatrician at Danis Pediatrics and a Saint Louis University assistant professor of pediatrics.

“We are the largest primary care pediatric practice in the city. Five years ago our clinic volumes were 13,000 to 14,000 visits a year. Now we are almost at 20,000. About 80% of our patients are on Medicaid and living in poverty,” he says. “We also are the largest academic practice in the city, so we not only provide outstanding medical services but do it while teaching the physicians of tomorrow.”

“We have 55 pediatric residents who rotate through our clinics. Most of those folks go off into primary care, often in our area. We also teach medical students, advanced-practice nursing students and physician assistants.”

In addition, Broom says, “We have a tremendous amount of research going on in Danis Pediatrics and are studying a variety of new programs.”

The center provides primary care for newborns to teens at age 18 and offers diagnostic services and second opinions for complex cases referred by community pediatricians and family practitioners. Primary care patients are seen by medical school graduates during their pediatric residencies, under the supervision of full-time faculty pediatricians.

The center’s pediatricians recently created a system for text-messaging

health information and appointment reminders to teens. Specialty clinics are conducted for foreign adoptees and refugee children who have arrived in St. Louis with no or little past medical care.

“We continue our maternal depression counseling program, called ‘Happy Mothers, Healthy Families,’ that screens about 260 mothers a month,” Broom says.

Danis pediatricians are developing a “Fostering Healthy Children” program for children and teens in foster care who often require significant medical oversight.

“Another program we have added in the last year is called P Square, a parenting clinic that provides a mode of empowerment through positive parenting,” Broom says. “It provides services for children who have behavioral problems or developmental delays. Many of our parents grew up in households where there was not any discipline, structure or insight regarding child-raising.”

The center’s burgeoning service load led to the creation of a new satellite practice, Danis Pediatrics Midtown, that absorbed 20% of its patients.

“Immediately that volume filled back,” Broom says. “We are looking to add an even larger site in the next three years or so and hopefully move our entire practice into a bigger space.”

2011 First fetal surgery is performed at the St. Louis Fetal Care Institute.

Today: The Future is Unlimited at the St. Louis Fetal Care Institute The founders predicted that SSM Health Cardinal Glennon would benefit children from far away. One of the services achieving that goal is the St. Louis Fetal Care Institute, which was founded with substantial support from an old friend – Fred M. Saigh.

Saigh was a lawyer and investor who owned two of the landmark office buildings in downtown St. Louis. From 1947 to 1953 he owned the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1950 he served as a founding sponsor of the hospital’s building drive. Saigh passed away in 1999. His philanthropic legacy continues through the Saigh Foundation.

“The Saigh Foundation was instrumental in getting us off the ground,” says Mike Vlastos, MD, medical director of the institute.

“With the support of the Saigh Foundation we have established ourselves nationwide as a leading center for fetal surgery,” says Katie Francis, RN, MSN, nurse coordinator of the institute. “We have helped more than 1,200 families. We have had patients from 15 states and 88% of them are from outside of the metropolitan St. Louis area.”

The institute is one of fewer than 20 fetal care programs in the country and is one of the most experienced in surgical repair of spina bifida and minimally-invasive laser surgery on fetal lung masses and twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. It was among

the first centers in the Midwest to perform an EXIT (ex utero intrapartum treatment) procedure which is a modified cesarean section. The baby’s head and arms are delivered and the baby remains attached to the placenta while a surgical procedure is performed.

Surgeons have performed 140 prenatal procedures with a fetoscope, which requires only small incisions in the mother’s abdomen and uterus.

About 50 procedures have been performed with an open procedure in which incisions are made in mother’s abdomen and uterus so surgery can be performed on the fetus. The incisions are closed and the fetus continues gestation.

8 to 10% of mothers and patients referred to the institute require surgery, Francis says. “For the other mothers we do testing, confirm the diagnosis, provide information about the baby’s prognosis and come up with a plan for the remainder of the pregnancy, delivery and the care after birth.”

“One of Cardinal Glennon’s remarkable stances has always been

that no child will ever be turned away for inability to pay,” says Vlastos.

“In the early days of the Fetal Care Institute we were doing procedures that were novel and the administration would foot the bill for cases that insurance companies considered experimental and weren’t covering.”

SSM Health Cardinal Glennon and SSM Health St. Mary’s hospitals, SSM Health, Saint Louis University School of Medicine and the Saigh Foundation pitched in when fetal intervention remained highly experimental, he says. “I cannot say enough for the support we have received. The future is unlimited and we are fortunate to have an opportunity of making those positive changes.”

2013 Knights of Columbus Developmental Center moved to new quarters on the hospital campus thanks to the generous support of Knights in Missouri and Illinois.

Five rooms added to the Dana Brown Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

with funding from Cardinal Glennon Children’s Foundation.

U.S. News and World Report magazine included SSM Health Cardinal Glennon in its Best Children’s Hospitals for 2013-2104 for its pediatric cardiology/heart surgery and neonatology services.

Jeffrey Modell Center founded to care for children with primary immune deficiency disorders.

25th Bob Costas Benefit held at the Fox Theater in support of hematology/oncology services.

30th anniversary Columbia Golf Classic held at Columbia Golf Course.

SportsCare program introduced.

Today: SportsCare Helps Young Athletes Stay Healthy and Injury-Free “Each year we reach about 200,000 individuals through our educational outreach program. Our goal is educating coaches, families and kids on injury prevention techniques,” says Katie Leible, M.Ed., ATC, LAT, SportsCare outreach manager at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon.

When injury or illness does

PEDIATRIC INTENSIVE CARE UNIT

then strike a child or teen playing in a participating athletic program, Cardinal Glennon SportsCare offers a round-the-clock contact.

“We provide education on what to do when injuries or illnesses do occur and provide a 24-hour, seven-days-aweek concierge line. Families can call us and ask any questions about their child’s health,” Leible says. “We can answer their questions and work with all of the service lines within SSM Health Cardinal Glennon to put them in touch with the right people in our system, whether it is an SSM Health emergency room or urgent care center or a specialist here at the hospital.”

Three outreach liaisons provide support and educational materials to organizations across metropolitan St. Louis, from Edwardsville, IL, west to St. Charles County.

“Philanthropy has been huge for us,” Leible says. “This past year the Coca-Cola Foundation generously awarded Cardinal Glennon SportsCare a grant that allowed us to expand to the Metro East and

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enabled us to provide even more exceptional care.”

2014 New pediatric intensive care unit opened.

Today: Support for the sickest kids in the PICU “The pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is never the reason patients come to the hospital, but none of the other hospital programs can provide full care without the unit and the team of health care professionals who staff it,” says Lia Lowrie, MD, director of division of pediatric critical care and Saint Louis University professor of pediatrics.

The PICU admitted about 1,100 patients in 2015. “That is an increase from 700 to 750 just four years ago. The numbers are increasing because Cardinal Glennon has been successful in recruiting subspecialty pediatricians and surgeons and

building comprehensive pediatric programs,” Lowrie says.

“All specialty centers need a PICU team of doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists and other professional who are trained in specific pediatric intensive care processes to knows how to take care of patients who are really sick.

We are there for bone marrow or solid organ transplant patients who have a bad infection or reaction to medications, patients with brain tumors, multiple traumatic injuries, complex heart surgeries and patients with more common illnesses like asthma that may be out of control.”

The current home of the PICU is triple its previous size, says Pam Brouder, RN, MSN, director of critical care. “As we have grown and learned more in medicine, we have more equipment, more devices, more ways of saving kids. We had a huge need for more space.”

The unit grew from 17 to 21 beds and switched to private rooms from the open-ward layout that was the

standard when the previous unit was built.

“There is sunshine, brighter lighting and monitors outside the rooms that mimic the monitoring inside the rooms, giving nurses PICU team the ability to assess vital signs remotely,” Lowrie says. “The noise is reduced and the privacy gives families the ability to sleep right there at the bedside.”

Funding for the new unit was partially provided by community support to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Foundation.

“Families who came to our old unit and have come back said the transformation makes things so much easier,” Brouder said. “One mother told me a peaceful calmness has come over the department. The staff feels it as well.”

SSM Health Cardinal Glennon was a pioneer in the development of pediatric extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which does the work of the heart and lungs in pumping blood and exchanging carbon dioxide for oxygen. The hospital continues to lead in its use and advancement and has been designated as an ECMO Center of Excellence by the international Extracorporeal Life Support Organization. The PICU team has worked with the Dallas Heart Center to expand beyond ECMO. “We have successfully helped to manage a couple of 2-year-olds when they were awaiting heart transplants using biventricular assist devices, which are essentially

artificial hearts. It is very advanced technology,” Lowrie says. “It went really well. I don’t think we would have been as successful with these new technologies in the old physical plant – the monitoring and sheer space and light would have been inadequate.”

Adds Brouder, “The life expectancy of some of these kids would not have been possible a decade ago.”

2015 The 26th and final Bob Costas Benefit was held at the Fox Theatre.

Today: A History of Famous Friends After raising $16 million for patient care and research in the cancer center named in his honor, Bob Costas announced that the 26th edition of the benefit would be the last. He promised to remain on Board as a supporter of SSM Health Cardinal Glennon, and will return in November to host the Glennon Glow 60th Anniversary gala.

Costas had invited some of the biggest stars and legends in comedy and music to entertain for the hospital’s patients: Tony Bennett, Jay Leno, Ray Charles, Garry Shandling, Hootie and the Blowfish, Ray Romano, Natalie Cole, Cedric the Entertainer, Huey Lewis & The News, George Wallace, Bill Murray, Sheryl Crow, Billy Crystal, Paul Simon, Robert Klein,

Jennifer Hudson, Jimmy Fallon, Faith Hill, Conan O’Brien, Kevin Costner, Dana Carvey, Jerry Seinfeld, Diana Ross and Martin Short.

The Costas events continued a tradition of celebrities sharing their love and good fortune with the kids at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon. First-year visitors to the hospital included cowboy star Gene Autrey and Gail Davis, who played Annie Oakley on television.

Other visitors in the early years included actor Clayton Moore, “The Lone Ranger;” Buffalo Bob, Captain Kangaroo and Jane Wyatt of the legendary television show “Father Knows Best.”

An all-time highlight was the visit of the Paul Miller Wild Animal Big Top Circus, which brought trained dogs, a clown, an organist and an adult elephant into the main lobby.

In 1970 Charles Kuralt brought his famous CBS-TV program “On the Road” to SSM Health Cardinal Glennon to do a story about the radiology and magic tricks of Dr. Armand Brodeur. In 1979 Col. Harland Sanders, founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants, toured the hospital and kissed a baby.

THE COSTAS CENTER

then Year after year the celebrities came: The Osmond Brothers, The Oak Ridge Boys, Shari Lewis & Lamb Chop, John Denver, Lou Rawls, the magician Blackstone and country music icon Dolly Parton.

Today: Newest Treatments at Kid-Friendly Costas Center As the stage went dark after the final Costas Event, the lights remained bright at The Costas Center, one of the most advanced and friendly centers anywhere for treatment of childhood cancer and blood diseases.

“One of the hallmarks of the past 10 years has been a greater ability for us to provide cuttingedge technologies and to enroll kids in clinical trials leading to the development of new anti-cancer drugs.

Even more innovative is our ability to enroll children with cancer into studies that use genomic profiling in order to provide patients with personalized

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therapies. Those are very exciting developments,” says William Ferguson, MD, director of The Costas Center and professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University.

Ferguson also holds the Bob Costas Chair in Pediatrics that was funded by the Board of Governors of Cardinal Glennon Children’s Foundation.

Funds from the Bob Costas Benefit recently remodeled the center into an underwater theme, enabling it to treat more children and teens as outpatients while offering a child-friendly, comfortable place to visit.

“It was a great environment before but it is even nicer now,” Ferguson says.

“The center gives us a greater ability to deal with longer infusions so treatments can be given on an out-patient basis.

“When you or I visit our doctor once a year, it doesn’t matter to us much what the waiting room and office look like. On the other hand, if we were going someplace five days a week or every week for a year -- like many of our kids do -- the environment is

very important,” he says. “Our ability to provide skilled and personalized nursing care along with play therapy, music therapy, social workers and all of the other family and patient supports we have, makes a real difference.”

The center sees about 60 newlydiagnosed cancer patients annually as well as patients referred for bone marrow transplants and other specialized clinical trials, Ferguson said.

The center is a member of the Children’s Oncology Group and other cooperative groups engaged in the early stages of drug development and in advancing stem cell transplantation in children.

“We are moving into cutting-edge areas not only with cancer therapies but also with trials for kids with sickle cell disease and hemophilia,” Ferguson says.

The Costas Center is a major referral center for hemophilia and other bleeding and clotting disorders.

It serves a large population who have sickle cell disease, a group of inherited disorders of the red blood cells that

can slow or stop the flow of blood and oxygen through the body. It can cause major illness and disability. In the US most patients born with the disease are African-American.

“We are approaching 200 patients with sickle cell disease,” Ferguson says. “It is a life-long and serious disease. In the past five or six years our standard of care for these kids has increased with our aggressive use of new technologies and it is our goal to provide these kids with their best chance at a normal life.”

2016 SSM Health Cardinal Glennon pediatricians are known for sharing their knowledge and research with international peers, making 81 presentations at medical society meetings and publishing 105 articles in academic medical journals in the previous year.

Today: The community continues to give back The St. Louis citizens and businesses built the hospital and continue to help it grow.

“We wouldn’t be where we are today without the programs supported by the Foundation and the Glennon Guild,” Wilmott says. “Look at the renovation of the pediatric intensive care unit and the Dana Brown nursery and the legacy gift that built the Dallas Heart Center. We have been very good stewards of that money.”

“I am sure the future will be very exciting,” Wilmott says. “We are going to continue seeing miniaturization of instruments and further refinement in imaging. We are going to have new ways of treating cancers.”

“I can only think that the next 10 years are going to be phenomenal,” says Vane. “The Foundation has been incredibly supportive. It has bought most of our state-of-the art equipment. We have the infrastructure we need and we have young surgeons who are incredibly well-trained, welleducated and innovative.”

Vane holds the J. Eugene Lewis Jr., MD, Chair in Pediatric Surgery that was established by the Foundation in honor of the hospital’s first general surgeon, who passed away in 2013.

“I was able to spend some time with Dr. Lewis. He was very happy with what he had seen develop at Cardinal Glennon. He felt that he was part of this initiative -- it was his dream to make this place what it is now.”

“Our Board, our system and our physicians and surgeons always had a long-term vision of expertise and caring that melds the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of care-giving,” Ries says. “The founders took a huge leap of faith and hit a grand-slam home run. Their attitude was, ‘We can do it. We will not fail.’

And they didn’t fail.

“I have been to almost every community we serve in a radius around St. Louis,” Ries continues.

“All the time I heard that Cardinal Glennon was the place to refer children because of the excellence

in delivering services and the caring attitude of the staff.”

“Philanthropy has been the key to the hospital’s growth and achievements and will be critical in extending its mission of serving all children regardless of ability to pay,” Hailstone says. “We would not have been able to make the capital improvements we made without community support. About seven of 10 children who are cared for at Cardinal Glennon live below the poverty line. They have a lot of needs.”

Jureidini is amazed that minimallyinvasive surgical procedures performed in the womb are correcting heart defects that were totally untreatable 60 years ago and rarely correctable a decade ago.

“In 1956? Oh gosh, we could not have done anything by interventional cardiology then,” Jureidini says. “We do five to 10 procedures in the hybrid cath lab each year for children born with critical aortic stenosis. We used to do them in the surgical suite. Mortality was awful – half of them used to die.

“Now we do a hybrid procedure.

They stay intubated for a couple of days and go home. The survival is about 99%. I thank God.”

O

n March 28 Steven Burghart began as the new president of SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital. In this role, Burghart will be responsible for leading the 195-bed academic pediatric hospital that specializes in neonatology, cardiology, pediatric and fetal surgery, and cancer services.

“Steven exemplifies strong mission-based leadership, and he demonstrates the enthusiasm and compassion that we were seeking in the new president of Cardinal Glennon,” said Candace Jennings, regional president of hospital operations for SSM Health in St. Louis.

Steven Burghart

Before joining SSM Health, Burghart served as chief executive President SSM Health Cardinal Glennon officer for Holtz Children’s Hospital and The Women’s Hospital Children’s Hospital at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center, part of Jackson Health, a nonprofit academic medical system.

In this role he oversaw the 354-bed tertiary and quaternary referral center for complex pediatric, obstetrical, gynecologic and gynecologic oncology patients. During his tenure, he successfully led several major initiatives that enhanced patient care, physician engagement, service growth and financial success.

Prior to joining Jackson Health System, Burghart worked for Tenet Healthcare in several roles, including chief operating officer at Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach, chief operating officer at Hialeah Hospital and associate administrator at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach. He earned a master’s degree in health care administration from Trinity University and an undergraduate degree from Baylor University.

“Through our exceptional health care services, we reveal the healing presence of God.”

Brightening the lives of Cardinal Glennon kids for 60 years