Guardians Magazine: Fall 2021

Guardians Fall 2021

The stories of impact you make possible at St. Louis Children’s Hospital

Waiting for a Transplant Miles From Home see page 6

Doing what’s right for kids

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Creating lifesaving treatments for the smallest babies

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Making camp a safe place

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Giving back one day at a time

From Tanya L. Waskiewicz

Chief Development Officer, St. Louis Children’s Hospital The stories of impact you make possible at St. Louis Children’s Hospital

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buzzworthy

News from St. Louis Children’s Hospital

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the best care for our kids

Cover story: Waiting for a transplant miles from home

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big advances for our small patients

Creating lifesaving treatments for the smallest babies

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letting kids be kids

Making camp a safe place

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featured guardian of childhood

Giving back one day at a time

Please note: This publication includes photographs and images of subjects without masks. These were created before current CDC guidelines, and St. Louis Children’s Hospital continues to adhere to strict policies to keep patients, visitors and staff safe.

St. Louis Children’s Hospital Foundation 1001 Highlands Plaza Drive West, Suite 160 St. Louis, MO 63110 314.286.0988 888.559.9699 Copyright ©2021 StLouisChildrens.org/Giving

Dear Friends, As the new leader of St. Louis Children’s Hospital Foundation, I must first say that it’s so wonderful to be here. Ensuring the best care for kids has always been one of my top priorities and after positions with several other children’s hospitals in California and Tennessee, I’m happy to be with the top children’s hospital in Missouri.

I joined the Foundation in August and have hit the ground running at full speed. Joining a new organization is full of acclimation and embracing the culture and I am thrilled with my time here so far.

If I haven’t had the chance to meet you yet, I can tell you with no uncertainty that I hope to meet with as many donors as our health and safety protocols allow in the coming months. The number of exciting projects coming out of our Foundation walls is incredible and I want to let you know about a few of those.

After the cancellation, postponement and reimagination of fundraising events in 2020 and early 2021, I am thrilled that we have been able to safely attend or host a small handful of in-person events in conjunction with infection prevention experts at St. Louis Children’s and BJC. While the health and safety of our patients, families, staff and community is always at the forefront of our minds, we continue to monitor the current conditions and continue to remain flexible as we head into the traditional cold and flu season.

Toward the end of the year, you will start to see several of our patients in television and radio commercials and various print advertisements as we celebrate the holiday giving season.

I encourage each of you to learn more about the kids we’re featuring. They each have an incredible story of resiliency and if they look familiar to you, it’s because we’re sharing updates on their prognosis and current progress.

In closing, while I thought my post-secondary education career path was leading me toward becoming a television reporter, after my dad was diagnosed with cancer, I knew I was destined for something else. And that something has been fundraising for some of the best health organizations in the country. Again, I am very lucky to have joined St. Louis Children’s and I’m thankful for each of the donors who share my sentiments. I look forward to joining you in doing what’s right for kids.

Warm Regards,

Tanya L. Waskiewicz

highlights & happenings

The 20th Annual Joe Buck Golf Classic raised a record $646,000 in support of a new MRI suite at the Joe Buck Imaging Center at St. Louis Children’s. The Foundation worked in partnership with infection prevention experts to execute a safe event with guests enjoying golf and a program and live auction hosted by Joe Buck.

The Foundation hosted the 37th Annual St. Louis Children’s Hospital Day at Six Flags on September 17 and raised more than $497,000 for the hospital.

BJC and St. Louis Children’s Hospital infection prevention experts approved each aspect of the event’s planning, allowing guests to safely enjoy rides with no lines and unlimited treats in the park.

The Purina Family Pet Center is celebrating five years of reuniting children with their pets during hospital stays. This unique room, one of only four in the world, allows cats and dogs from home to visit a child who is in the hospital, thanks to our partner, Nestle Purina.

Pedal the Cause was held in September to raise money for Siteman Cancer Center and Siteman Kids at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in 2021.

Individuals participated through in-person or virtual biking and cycling. With 100% of the funds raised going toward groundbreaking research, new cancer treatments can be developed right here in St. Louis.

In partnership with longtime supporter PetSmart Charities, patients at St. Louis Children’s will receive plush replicas of the hospital’s famous facility dog, Casey. The chocolate lab, created by Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc., will continue to bring comfort to patients in a whole new way.

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buzzworthy

Making Safety a Priority Thanks to a New Grant The current national mental health crisis continues to affect local children at alarming levels. With elevated stress levels, safe play helps keep kids calm while they receive the support and care that they need. While guidelines are in place to ensure that toys and activities are appropriate for each child’s situation, until now, these items were not always available in the emergency department (ED) or in the pediatric behavioral health unit.

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arlier this year, the Child Life Services department at St. Louis Children’s Hospital was awarded a grant by The Toy Foundation and Children’s Hospital Association to better support these patients with safe activity kits. These kits will allow kids in the ED to relieve their anxiety through safe play. The kits contain activities like books, crayons, UNO® cards, puzzles, stress balls and other items that patients can enjoy while minimizing risk to themselves or others.

All kits will contain a basic group of items, further customized to meet a child’s development level or sensory processing needs.

Patients with sensory needs may benefit from activities such as wiggle pads, liquid timers and

chewy tubes to support calming their bodies and minds.

“Child Life Services is eager to offer this new resource to support our patients with behavioral health concerns, especially at a critical time like the beginning of a new school year,” said Child Life Specialist Melody DeWeese. As more and more children are impacted by the current mental health crisis, the child life specialists hope that the safe activity kits will help patients who receive care in the St. Louis Children’s Hospital ED. Children who are admitted to the hospital will begin their stay with a collection of safe and calming activities, while kids who return home will do so with resources that they can use now and in the future.

A team of hospital caregivers, including Melody DeWeese, worked together to select the most beneficial activities for all age levels.

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Guardians Magazine Fall 2021

buzzworthy

Empowering Healing Through Yoga For Lisa Roberts, her love of yoga didn’t grow overnight. Similarly, neither did the program she’s grown at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. But after more than 13 years, Lisa has seen the yoga program flourish.

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isa moved to St. Louis from New York City, where she spent time spearheading yoga workshops for oncology patients, families and staff, and immediately began to volunteer at St. Louis Children’s. After three years she started offering yoga to the hospital staff, and in 2012, Lisa began a pilot program for patients with sickle cell disease. The group therapy sessions were offered to inpatient children, and the program received rave reviews. The kids were learning valuable pain management and meditation skills they could use both in and out of the hospital — critically needed tools for patients living with this chronic disease.

After seeing the positive progress Lisa’s students were making, Child Life Services advocated to expand the program to include patients who were undergoing treatment for childhood cancer. With the help of generous donors, the program has grown to include all inpatient children and those who are outpatient and receiving dialysis. She has a second yoga instructor, and the one-on-one sessions are tailored to each child’s specific needs, whether that’s using targeted yoga therapy practices for issues such as nausea or pain, or developing much-needed relaxation techniques to get through a medical procedure.

“Ultimately, I like to give patients autonomy and control over their sessions,” said Lisa. “My focus when working with these children is to focus on reflection and empowerment, teaching students to ask themselves how they feel — that is how their body feels, as well as their mind, mood and emotions.”

Top: “It fills my heart to see these kids smile while giving them beneficial tools,” said Lisa of her time, like with kids at Camp Independence shown here.

Bottom: Lisa, pictured here with Lily Manning during a session at Camp Independence, took her first yoga class at 23 while in Thailand and said it wasn’t for her. Years later, she became a yoga instructor.

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the best care for our kids

Waiting for a Transplant Miles From Home Considering everything Zoe has gone through in her seven years of life, her outlook is remarkable. Rarely in a bad mood, the second-grader loves to dance and play practical jokes on her friends and family.

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Guardians Magazine Fall 2021

Zoe’s extended stay while awaiting transplant has allowed her to build trust with her care team and even have an active role in her treatment plan.

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he first nine months for Zoe, the youngest child who has two older sisters and one older stepbrother, were typical. Her mom, Christina, said that she was always a quiet baby who slept a lot, but she wasn’t ever concerned about Zoe. Then one night she threw up and slipped into a coma. Zoe was subsequently diagnosed with propionic acidemia, an inherited condition in which her body cannot break down certain proteins and fats. Typically diagnosed through the newborn screening at the hospital, her case at the time was mild enough that it slipped through undetected. But the buildup of ammonia in her body was silently damaging her tiny body.

After a stay at a hospital near their home in northwest Arkansas, her condition improved and she managed the metabolic disorder, for which there is no cure, through a low-protein diet and medication. At age 5 she was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy that was treated with more medication, but when Zoe was almost 7, her heart health rapidly declined and she went into heart failure. The family hoped to find the answer at a hospital closer to home but were told the transplant program could not accommodate the heart and liver transplant Zoe so desperately needed.

St. Louis Children’s Hospital could do both. Marion Ybarra, MD, first met Zoe when she arrived for her consultation in October 2020. A pediatric transplant cardiologist and assistant professor of pediatrics with Washington University School of Medicine, Dr. Ybarra was surprised Zoe had as much energy as she did given the condition of her heart. After spending a few weeks at St. Louis Children’s, the Heart Center team decided she could return home to Arkansas to give her heart some time to recover on its own and delay a transplant if possible.

Within a few weeks of returning home, the unthinkable happened — Zoe contracted COVID-19. Her already weakened heart couldn’t handle the virus and she was rushed back to St. Louis Children’s, where she spent 40 days in the intensive care unit on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). “Ultimately we came to the conclusion that once she was placed on ECMO, the possibility of making a full recovery was slim to none given the severity of her dysfunction,” said Dr. Ybarra. As 2020 came to an end, her care team, consisting of the heart and liver transplant teams, geneticists and the National Institutes of Health, which was involved due to the rarity of her disease, placed her on the registry for a heart and liver transplant.

The donor-funded School Program at St. Louis Children’s Hospital supports long-term patients like Zoe and the teachers who provide important educational programming in a dedicated classroom inside the hospital or at the bedside when a child is not able to leave the hospital room.

Unfortunately, there is no bridge to transplant device that is approved for mobility in a child Zoe’s age and size, so she cannot leave the hospital while she waits for a heart and liver to become available. In the meantime, Zoe and her family have made St. Louis Children’s home. Thanks to donor-funded programs available to caregivers and families, Zoe’s mom and dad have been able to stay with her the entire time. The Center for Families and Ronald McDonald Family Room provides showers and a place to relax, while the hospital’s dedicated social work team ensures the family feels supported by providing necessary resources and guidance.

Because of Zoe’s long-term hospitalization, it’s vital to keep her both physically and mentally strong as she awaits her transplant.

Physical therapy, occupational therapy and expressive therapy are all part of her care plan, which keeps her busy throughout the day.

She also spends time with the St. Louis Children’s school teachers, who stay connected with Zoe’s elementary school back home to make sure she’s staying on track academically.

Zoe’s mom is thankful that her daughter is at St. Louis Children’s.

The pediatric transplantation program has been leading the way thanks to the close association with Washington University School of Medicine and its ability to retrieve organs from around the United States due to its Midwest location. But even so, organ transplant is never a guarantee. “I can’t stress enough how important it is to become an organ donor,” said Christina. “I wish there were more donors out there for Zoe, but right now we just have to wait.”

Editor’s Note: We learned that Zoe received the lifesaving transplant she and her family had been waiting for soon after the completion of this story. We wish Zoe and her family the best as she continues to heal from surgery.

Did you know that unrestricted donor gifts help support the many programs and services that are available to kids like Zoe and their families? Make a gift today at StLouisChildrens.org/Give.

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big advances for our small patients

Creating Lifesaving Treatments for the Smallest Babies

Through her work, Dr. Misty Good has worked tirelessly to find the cause behind necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), an often fatal gastrointestinal disease for premature babies.

Photo by Matt Miller, Office of Medical Public Affairs at Washington University.

For the past five years, Misty Good, MD, MS has dedicated her research at the Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital to the tiniest patients — premature babies who contract necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). For the 90% of premature infants and 10% of full-term infants who are diagnosed with this disease, the outcomes are grim, but Dr. Good is aiming to precisely determine those at highest risk for NEC and to develop novel preventative strategies to protect these fragile babies.

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Guardians Magazine Fall 2021

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xactly what causes NEC is unknown.

Born sick and small, premature infants seem to develop the disease most often. Dr. Good is focusing on a particular developmental window when premature babies are the most susceptible.

“When I was a pediatric resident, we had all these different babies who were doing fine and then suddenly their belly got distended and they got sick very quickly,” said Dr. Good. “And it really struck me how much we don’t know about this disease.”

The experience left her with a lot of questions and during her newborn intensive care unit fellowship training, she chose to focus her research on the disease that stuck out as she watched premature babies lose the fight against this mysterious illness.

Unfortunately, the current standard treatment for NEC is either medical or surgical. Once diagnosed, care teams must stop traditional feeds to protect the infant’s gastrointestinal system. Antibiotics, blood draws to watch for sepsis and x-rays every six hours are a necessity as medical staff watches for progression of the disease.

Dr. Good refers to the tedious process as a waiting game. Unfortunately, once the team detects damage to the intestinal wall, it becomes an emergency, with surgeons removing the affected intestine to save the patient, who faces up to a 50% chance of mortality. If a baby does survive, there can be lifelong consequences, including short bowel syndrome, neurodevelopmental complications or cerebral palsy.

Dr. Good says that currently they are searching for the answer as to why NEC develops in some babies and not others, and the only known preventative is breastmilk. But they are closely following patients from birth until discharge to identify all the moments in their journey and whether small markers can be detected that would lead to a diagnosis more quickly.

Her lab continues to focus on the prevention of NEC altogether, but in the

These types of studies are expensive and unfortunately not easily fundable by other sources.

Misty Good, MD, MS

meantime are trying to develop different therapies to save the babies who do contract the disease from progressing to surgical NEC. They’ve made huge strides in the lab by creating “mini guts” on microchips using patient samples that the team can administer various treatment options to test different therapies. This will lead to more precise medicine, determining a personalized course of treatment based on scientific success in the laboratory.

“Because the number of babies at any given hospital isn’t high enough to ensure the right biomarker, the studies need to be multi-institutional,” said Dr. Good.

“These types of studies are expensive and unfortunately not easily fundable by other sources.”

Thanks to donors who make gifts to support research at the Children’s Discovery Institute, a world-class center for pediatric research and innovation that encourages researchers to ask bold questions and take bold risks to uncover answers, Dr. Good is able to continue her commitment to finding a specific biomarker or test to both predict the disease and give medical teams more time to prepare a better course of treatment.

To ensure researchers like Dr. Good are able to continue groundbreaking research, consider making a donation to the Children’s Discovery Institute.

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letting kids be kids

Many of the camps offered throughout the year could not happen without the philanthropic spirit of St. Louis Children’s donors.

Making Camp a Safe Place For many kids, feeling “different” is hard. For those with an illness or disease that requires constant medical care, it’s even harder to sit on the sidelines and watch their peers take part in cherished activities like summer camp.

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Guardians Magazine Fall 2021

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hankfully, St. Louis Children’s Hospital has created camps specifically designed for children with congenital or acquired heart defects; HIV-infected and HIV-affected families; children with sickle cell disease; those with cerebral palsy and movement disorders; and kids and teens who have lost a family member or friend to illness or accident. These specialty camps are designed to develop friendships with other kids with the same challenges, which can boost confidence and the feeling of acceptance. Not only are these camps meant to meet the needs of kids living with illness and disease, but kids attend at no cost to their families, making it attainable for all members of the community.

To ensure the safety of all our campers, on-site medical staff includes nurses and physicians who are available 24 hours, certified child life specialists, pediatric social workers, physical therapists and St. Louis Children’s volunteers. Parents and guardians are at ease knowing their children are being properly taken care of while just getting to be kids.

Camp Rhythm

Camp Independence

Kids with heart conditions experience the fun of friends and freedom at Camp Rhythm, a summer camp designed for children like them. In a community where medication, fatigue and scars are a normal part of life, Camp Rhythm gives kids the chance to just be kids — keeping them safe while participating in a variety of activities. The youngest campers attend a day camp while the older children stay overnight. Regardless of their age, each day is packed with fishing, swimming, arts and crafts, archery and more.

St. Louis Children’s Camp Independence, the only camp that runs both summer and winter sessions, is for children with cerebral palsy and other movement disorders. Focusing on adaptive sports, this day camp fosters confidence in their athletic abilities. These camps have a lasting impact on the children who attend, as they show them what they are truly capable of achieving.

Activities like tennis are easily adapted to fit each camper’s ability, promoting positive self-esteem.

Campers and counselors created their own tie-dyed shirts as keepsakes.

Camp Crescent Children who are diagnosed with sickle cell disease attend Camp Crescent, a safe and supportive environment for patients who often feel left out or isolated because their disease includes extreme pain and repeat hospitalizations. Allowing campers the opportunity to enjoy traditional camp activities with children who share the same illness helps them feel more confident about living with a chronic medical condition. Because symptoms may arise at any time, traditional camp is not always an option for parents to consider, but Camp Crescent is designed with their children’s needs in mind.

In 2021, Camp Crescent moved to an at-home camp and kids received age-appropriate kits to enjoy at home.

Camp Hope Camp Hope, a weekend-long camp for HIV-infected and HIV-affected families, focuses on fun, relaxation and building bonds through horseback riding, swimming, a ropes course and more. The retreat is designed to allow families to escape the struggles associated with parenting a child living with HIV. Parent sessions and parent-specific activities allow caregivers to learn about new advances in HIV care, improve coping strategies, meet other families to build a support network and have much-needed time for self-care. Camp families consistently share that Camp Hope is the only place they can disclose their loved one’s diagnosis and seek support from others outside of their immediate families.

Camp Hope is planned for November this year and will give families time away to enjoy fun activities and health education.

continued on next page

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Stepping Stones and Labyrinth

Safety is Our No. 1 Priority Due to COVID-19 safety precautions, many of our camps looked different in 2020 and 2021. Several were cancelled or took place virtually with the help of kits sent to campers’ homes. Others were reimagined with the help of the St. Louis Children’s Hospital infection prevention team, allowing in-person camps with additional precautions to protect the health of our campers, staff and volunteers. Regardless of how they looked, donor support was vital to provide a positive camp experience for our patients and their families.

Grieving children and teens also receive support through non-traditional camps offered by BJC Hospice with grant funding from St. Louis Children’s Hospital Foundation. Stepping Stones is a weekend camp that allows children ages 6 to 12 who have lost a family member or friend to illness or accident to deal with their grief and loss. Not only does this camp give children the opportunity to meet others who are going through a similar experience, but it also includes sessions that support them in their grieving process. For older teens, Labyrinth is a one-day retreat that focuses on peer support where they can remember, mourn and support one another. For this age group, navigating emotions after a loss can be particularly difficult, especially if they are lacking emotional support from friends or family who are unsure how to handle death.

Creating their own memory projects allows children to sort through the many emotions of losing a family member.

Top: With the help of hospital staff, campers received bags that included snacks, a t-shirt, craft activities and more. The educational liaison was also on hand to distribute backpacks with school supplies.

Bottom: Camp safety is top of mind for St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

All campers, staff and volunteers adhere to safety guidelines put forth by the CDC, BJC and St. Louis Children’s Hospital infectious disease experts.

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Guardians Magazine Fall 2021

If you would like to help children achieve their dream of attending camp, please visit StLouisChildrens.org/Give to donate today.

How you can help kids

this holiday season!

This season of giving, please consider joining our mission to do what’s right for kids with a tax-deductible gift at StLouisChildrens.org/Gift, or through one of the following efforts:

Snowflake Village

Appreciated Stock*

St. Louis Children’s Hospital is grateful for the generous in-kind donations we receive throughout the year, but during the holidays these items are vital to stock Snowflake Village. This program provides the opportunity for families to “shop” for their children while in the hospital.

Please visit StLouisChildrens.org/WishList to learn more about our greatest needs and restrictions to keep in mind when purchasing items. For questions, please contact us at SLCHdonations@bjc.org or 314.215.7192.

If you have appreciated stock that you have held for more than one year, you may wish to consider giving a gift of stock to support our work. This is the most popular type of asset that donors give to St. Louis Children’s Hospital Foundation. When you donate long-term appreciated securities, you can reduce or even eliminate federal capital gains taxes on the gift.

In addition, you may be entitled to a federal income tax charitable deduction based on the full fair market value of the securities at the time of the transfer.

AmazonSmile

This is a great way to benefit our kids and realize additional tax benefits. Please contact Ana Pantazi at Ana.Pantazi@bjc.org or 314.286.1575 to inquire about our stock transfer instructions.

Don’t forget to add St. Louis Children’s Hospital as your preferred charity to your AmazonSmile account. Simply visit smile.amazon.com, select St. Louis Children’s Hospital Foundation and Amazon will donate 0.5% of eligible purchases to Children’s. Be sure to change your settings on the Amazon app, too!

IRA Charitable Rollovers* If you are 72 years old or older, you may make tax-free transfers from your IRA to a charity or charities, such as St. Louis Children’s Hospital Foundation, totaling up to $100,000 each year.

This giving opportunity, known as a qualified charitable distribution (QCD), can help to fulfill all or a portion of your required minimum distribution (RMD).

For more information, please contact Jan Rogers at Jan.Rogers@bjc.org or 314.286.0981.

Tax Credits* Missouri state tax credits are available for qualifying gifts to our Teen Outreach Program and Healthy Kids Express Dental. Make a gift to one of these vital programs, receive tax credits that reduce your overall tax obligation and end up paying less out of pocket overall. Give more, spend less!

What gifts can qualify for tax credits? Youth Opportunities Program (YOP): Gifts of $1,000 or more in support of our Teen Outreach Program from qualifying individuals and businesses.

Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP): Gifts of $1,000 or more in support of our Healthy Kids Express Dental from qualifying businesses.

For questions or to reserve your YOP or NAP tax credits today, please contact Lisa Williams at Lisa.Williams6@bjc.org or 314.286.0970.

*This information is provided for educational purposes only. Please consult with your legal or financial advisor when considering this gift.

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featured guardian of childhood

Giving Back One Day at a Time

Robert loves to talk with patients and families as they enter the hospital and thinks of them as his extended family.

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Guardians Magazine Fall 2021

As the first face patients and visitors see at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Robert Gardner takes his job very seriously. And to those who know him, whether they met 20 years ago or 20 minutes ago, it’s very clear that he’s passionate about the families, staff and visitors he’s been charged with protecting as a security officer since 2019.

Robert holds nothing back and gladly shares his personal perspective with scared parents.

After all, his own journey with St. Louis Children’s started back in 2000, when his son, Brandon, was born at 26 weeks.

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obert remembers the uncertainty of having a premature baby in the newborn intensive care unit (NICU). “The bridge you see me guard is the same bridge I used to cry on at night,” said Robert. “I’ve always wanted to give back to the hospital because I know what the parents go through. I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum.”

As a parent, Robert’s journey didn’t end after Brandon was discharged from the NICU. During routine screening, his son was eventually diagnosed with sickle cell disease — an inherited blood disorder that prevents the body’s organs and tissues from getting the oxygen they need to function properly. That meant multiple trips to St. Louis Children’s as Brandon suffered anemia, pain crises and silent strokes. Eventually, at age 17, Brandon suffered a debilitating stroke at school, leading Robert and his family to make the life-changing decision for Brandon to undergo a bone marrow transplant at St. Louis Children’s in 2019.

Robert credits the team at St. Louis Children’s with saving his son’s life and knows that without the groundbreaking care his son received, the outcome could have been very different.

When he’s not making kids smile, the United States Marine Corps veteran and father of two is reassuring parents and caregivers that they’re in a safe place and everything is going to be OK. “I was in their shoes,” said Robert. “I spent many sleepless nights at this hospital and as much as the doctors try to reassure you it’s going to be OK, it’s a whirlwind of emotions.”

When Robert isn’t stationed at the second-floor bridge and welcoming families and visitors to the hospital, he can be found in the emergency department (ED), a pediatric Level 1 Trauma Center. Due to the urgent nature of the ED, it’s Robert’s job to ensure the patients are seen as quickly as possible while providing a

Top: Brandon and Robert celebrate Brandon’s high school graduation after receiving a lifesaving bone marrow transplant at St. Louis Children’s in 2019.

Right: “The times that little guy and I shared are so precious to me and it goes by entirely too fast … he’s now 21,” said Robert.

Brandon and Robert are shown here in fall 2001.

necessary element of security — keeping patients, visitors and staff safe during what can be a chaotic and stressful environment.

Robert remembers his own trips to the ED with his son during pain crises caused by his sickle cell disease. He sees how afraid some of the children are and tries to do something to make them know that it’s going to be OK. For some kids that’s a smile, and for others it’s a small toy for them to cling to during a medical procedure. No matter the gesture, Robert strives to make the patients and families who walk through the doors of St. Louis Children’s know that they are important.

“This hospital is one of the best in the nation, and I try to uphold that same standard because I truly care.”

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St. Louis Children’s Hospital Foundation 1001 Highlands Plaza Drive West, Suite 160 St. Louis, MO 63110 314.286.0988 or 888.559.9699 StLouisChildrens.org/Giving

Meet Our Champions!

The St. Louis Children’s Champions is a group of patients representing and advocating for St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

These Champions and their families are sharing their stories, celebrating medical milestones, advocating for others and fundraising on behalf of the hospital to advance the lifesaving discoveries of tomorrow at St. Louis Children’s.

We are proud to create an embracing community of supporters and friends who believe in our mission to do what’s right for kids.

Learn more about our Champions today by visiting StLouisChildrens.org/Champions.