Charity of the Month
Autism Speaks
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Past Charities
NCMEC
ChemoAngels
Childhelp
The Hugs and Hope Club
Operation Love Our Troops
St. Andrew's Mission
Soldiers' Angels
Only Make Believe
The Salvation Army
Retinoblastoma Awareness
O'Leary's Clover Farm
Make a Child Smile
Sew Much Comfort
Dana's Angels Research Trust
Lewy Body Dementia Assoc.
Red Cross Tsunami Relief
Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch
Sara's Hope
Angel Fund
St. Luke's LifeWorks
Grizz and Friends Cancer Fund
Anne Arundel County CASA
RT Autism Awareness Found.
Friends of Claire
Ben Bowen & Family
Greg and Fiona's Run
Pal-O-Mine
Dec '03 - Jan '04
The Honeysuckle Foundation
The Dream Center
Tuesday's Children
South Carolina Division
National Ovarian
Cancer Coalition
Camp Smile-A-Mile
The "I Have a Dream" Foundation
Boys Hope Girls Hope
Children of Promise Stables
Stars over Mississippi
Habitat for Humanity
Portage for Youth
Toys of Hope
Locks of Love
Michael's Journals Foundation
September Smiles
Wings for Success
Only Make Believe
Newborns in Need
The Colleen Giblin Foundation
Bobby Sherman
Volunteer EMT Foundation
Child Help USA
Huggz from Heaven
Small Paws Rescue
Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
Give Kids The World
Angel Flight NE
Cassidy's Place
The Casey Cares Foundation
Duke Children's Hospital
Hilltop Neighborhood House
Boundless Playgrounds
Kids Beating Cancer, Inc.
Epiphany
The Cody Unser First Step Foundation
Kids For Kids
National Interfaith Hospitality Network
Dreams of Hope
USPS Breast Cancer Research Stamp
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Imagine the anguish of a mother and father whose infant is born too early. Or who are told their child is critically ill. You can understand the importance of knowing their child is being cared for by one of the nation's leading pediatric teams, the nurses and physicians at Duke Children's Hospital & Health Center. A team that cares not just for the medical needs of the infant, but for the emotional needs of the entire family.
At Duke Children's Hospital & Health Center, caring for children is the number one priority. Each year they treat thousands of children from North Carolina and around the globe. Thankfully, many of these youngsters see them only for routine care - immunizations, physicals, the common cold. But many others come to Duke Children's to receive the most advanced health care available for life-threatening illnesses.
Duke Children's Hospital is playing for all the right reasons:
For Tyquan
On a warm spring evening in 1998, 5-year-old Tyquan Mikell held his mother’s hand as they strolled home from dinner at a local diner. Up ahead two men were arguing. Six shots rang out. Melissa Mikell yelled to her son to run. But it was too late. Tyquan lay face down on the pavement, a bullet through his spine. He was rushed to the emergency room at Duke Children’s Hospital. There, Melissa was told her son would never walk again. Six weeks after the shooting, Tyquan went home from Duke Children’s — alive, but with a very long road ahead of him. Two years later he continues to come to Duke Children’s for rehab, and doctors do not expect he will ever walk again. But despite his disability he is a bright, energetic 8-year-old who loves the things most boys his age love — pro wrestling, Power Rangers, reading, basketball, and riding a bike built specially for him with hand-powered pedals. Tyquan overcomes adversity each and every day. He is true champion!
For Farrell
Farrell Carter seems like a typical 8-year-old. He loves to shoot baskets, toss the football, ride his bike and run like the wind. But Farrell has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that effects the lungs and pancreas. Since he was an infant, his world has been filled with hospital visits, surgeries, and the daily rigors of living with a chronic illness. Thanks to the staff at Duke Children’s, he is able to lead a fairly normal life. And thanks to the research at Duke’s Cystic Fibrosis Program, one of the leading programs in the world, patients with CF — who 20 years age wouldn’t have lived to be teenagers — now have a much brighter future. Many are living well into adulthood.
For Cooper
Cooper Thomas weighed just 1 pound, 3 ounces when he was born. His father’s wedding band fit up to his thigh - that’s how small he was. Born nearly 16 weeks early, Cooper was rushed to Duke Children’s intensive care nursery, where for more than five months he received the most advanced ‘round-the-clock care. "It was overwhelming. They never really knew whether he was going to survive" his father. Michael Thomas says. "Twenty-four hours a day you wonder whether your son is going to make it."
Today, thanks to the care he received at Duke Children’s, Cooper is a healthy toddler, walking and learning to talk.
For Jonathan
Jonathan Patton arrived at Duke for the treatment of a congenital heart defect when he was just three days old. Twenty-four years, eight open-heart surgeries, several valve replacements and two pacemakers later, Jonathan is now on the waiting list for a new heart. Doctors say there is nothing else they can do for his current heart.
For 21 months he was a resident of Duke Hospital, waiting for a heart. In September 2000, doctors told him he would probably not find a suitable match from a human donor and sent him home to wait for trials of a new artificial heart. The wait could be as long as two years. But Jonathan isn’t giving up. A new heart — human or artificial -- he says, will give him a new lease on 1ife. A chance to go to college, get his driver’s license, get a full-time job. All things most people his age take for granted but that are too taxing for Jonathan’s heart. And he says going home without a heart is not a setback - it just demonstrates the dire need the more organ donors
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