Skip to main content

Search

Stories

I Am Seattle Children's

Watch the videos and read the stories of the providers, staff, supporters, patients, families, volunteers and friends who make up the Seattle Children's family.

Dr. Mike Jensen: Stopping Cancer in Its Tracks

Dr. Mike Jensen intends to start a revolution in pediatric cancer treatment where a child’s own immune system is the cure.

Nurses Make the Difference

Nurses work on the front line of patient care and are the eyes and ears of the medical team.

Surgeons Improve Outcomes

Seattle Children’s surgeons apply the art and science of their craft to improve outcomes for kids.

Donor Spotlight: Resa Moore

Seattle Children’s Research Institute may be powered by the brightest scientific minds, but the original push for the institute came straight from the hearts of mothers.

Zebrafish Aquatics Facility

Operated by the Center for Tissue and Cell Sciences, Seattle Children’s zebrafish aquatics facility is helping researchers pursue advanced therapies that repair congenital heart defects and other disorders – without invasive surgery or its complications.

Kids with Autism: Better Access to Services

Seattle Children's is taking a leadership role in making an audacious goal a reality: helping every child with autism get the services and treatment they deserve.

Dr. Gary Walco: Improving Pain Management

Dr. Gary Walco is on a mission to make every child's experience at the hospital as painless as possible. Starting now.

Cystic Fibrosis: Defeating Chronic Lung Infections

Dr. Luke Hoffman studies how different bacteria interact to improve treatment for chronic lung infections.

Principal Investigator Focus: Dr. Lisa Frenkel

As a clinician and researcher specializing in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Dr. Lisa Frenkel, an investigator in the Center for Childhood Infections and Prematurity Research, stands at the crossroads between two worlds.

Seattle Children's Hospital Providers Transplant Hope to One 3-Year-Old Patient

When Destiny was born, doctors detected that her small bowel was blocked because the lumen of the bowel was not formed. She has undergone about a dozen surgeries and in January 2011 received a small bowel transplant at Seattle Children’s.

Picturing the Future of Epilepsy Care

Dr. Rusty Novotny opens the door to better epilepsy care through his focus on integrated, multimodal imaging.

Healthy Kidneys, Healthy Lives

Seattle Children's Nephrology team takes an innovative approach to providing teens with chronic kidney disease what they need to live the lives they choose.

Breathing Easier: Developing the Hansen Ventilator

CEO Dr. Tom Hansen challenged a team to develop a low-tech, low-cost ventilator for use in resource-limited areas. What they’ve designed could save millions of preterm infants in the developing world.

Pediatric Specialty Care in Bellevue

Eastside children and teens get the region’s best pediatric specialty care at our new Bellevue Clinic and Surgery Center – and their parents get a short commute.

Innovations in Occupational Therapy

An innovative therapy helps children develop new motor pathways to improve use of a weakened arm.

Seattle Children's Journey Program

Seattle Children's Journey Program helps parents and siblings invest in a changed life after the death of a child. Two hundred families use the program's bereavement services each year.

Tammy's Story: From Alaska to Seattle Children's Prenatal Clinic

"I didn't just end up at Seattle Children's by chance. I did research and I made a choice. Seattle Children's is hands down the most forward-thinking hospital in terms of including families as part of the team."

The Gift of Time

Our diverse league of volunteers – from high schoolers to golden-agers – carry out small tasks that reap big rewards for patients, families, staff members and the volunteers themselves.

New Hope for Pediatric Cancer Treatment

Dr. Michael Jensen, who is leading research that has the potential to radically change the way pediatric cancers are treated – and cured – joined Seattle Children’s Research Institute in July 2010.

Passion for Drowning Prevention

Dynamic duo Elizabeth Bennett and Dr. Linda Quan strive to stop drowning deaths through research, outreach and advocacy.

Autism Center Brings Resources Together

Seattle Children’s Autism Center brings resources together to help families cope with a chronic, often disabling condition.

Matters of the Heart

Dramatic innovations in cardiac catheterization mean fewer conditions require open-heart surgery. Children's interventional cardiologists are helping show the way.

Finding the Beat: Heart Center

Children's heart surgery program hits its stride, providing pediatric clinical expertise and technological innovation that are unparalleled in the Pacific Northwest.

David Knott and the Sound of Music Therapy

Kim Arthur interviewed music therapist David Knott to find out how he uses music to help patients. He naturally turned to his musical instruments to explain.

Learn About the Grounds Surrounding Children’s

Take a tour of the grounds surrounding Seattle Children’s with Jeff Hughes, grounds and sustainability manager.

Changing the Script

The Biofeedback Clinic helps adolescents with chronic pain take back their lives. Using a variety of mind-body techniques – including guided visualization, progressive muscle relaxation and deep breathing – adolescents learn to control their pain.

Asthma Q&A with Dr. Jason Debley

Asthma is a blockage of bronchial tubes in the lungs caused by inflammation and swelling of the bronchial tubes, and spasm of the muscles surrounding the bronchial tubes. Find out more about asthma and current research being done by Dr. Jason Debley.

Operations, Big and Small

What does a 300-pound high-school football player with appendicitis have in common with a tiny newborn with the birth defect gastroschisis? Children's general and thoracic surgery providers can give both the care they need.

Program Innovation: Medical Genetics

Seattle Children's is pushing to expand the number of disorders screened for in newborns – and to improve the tests that diagnose them.

Program Innovation: Pulmonary Medicine

A young researcher is developing a noninvasive tool for small children that will improve clinicians' ability to diagnose and treat asthma earlier.

A Closer Look: Autism with Dr. Bryan King

What is autism, what may be the cause, and what research is being done? Dr. Bryan King, director of Child Psychiatry at Children’s, answers some of the simple and more complex issues surrounding autism.

The Journey to Recovery

At 16, Josie was the president of her sophomore class. Her life changed when her friend lost control of her car and Josie lay in a coma for 11 days.

Prevention Saves Lives

Injury and trauma are the leading cause of death among children, teens and young adults. Learn about injury prevention and the changes being made each day to help your children lead healthier lives.

Sports Injuries: Exercise Causes Them, Helps Cure Them

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears – once thought to be primarily an adult injury – now are routinely seen in Children’s pediatric orthopedic clinics as the length of sports seasons increase and the level of play intensifies.

Tiny Hearts, Big Results

Alethea Bloedel’s newborn skin was dusky at six weeks, an indication of a heart problem. One in every 100 children is born with a heart defect. Read more about infant heart disease.

Helping Kids Lead “Ordinary” Lives

No one appreciates the perseverance behind medical research more than Kari Foss, a member of Kentwood High School’s volleyball team, who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at age 2.

The Healing Touch

After a bone marrow transplant, 6-month-old Emily Behrens needed assistance weaning from morphine. Tiny pressure beads on her earlobes and minuscule needles at her wrists eased Emily’s withdrawal symptoms.

Growing into the Future

Children’s is fortunate to have the Gates Foundation as family partners. “We support Children’s so we can join in the thrill of scientific discovery, but it goes deeper than that...”

World-Class Healthcare Close to Home: Geneva’s Story

Linda’s daughter, Geneva, was born in 2001 with spina bifida, a condition in which the spinal column is not fully closed and the spinal cord is incompletely formed. Without surgery, Geneva would have been paralyzed from the waist down by age 3.

A Place for Children

A playroom stocked with toys, bedside games, and our Teen Zone equipped with Xbox and foosball makes Children’s a place where kids can be kids. Read more about Children’s facilities and activities.

Cancer Survivor Program

Cancer and its treatment can have serious long-term effects on health that are sometimes not evident until later in life. We have a follow-up program for childhood cancer survivors and their families.

Working Together to Cure Cancer

Ji Hyun Lee is a nurse practitioner in the Cancer program at Children’s. One visit with a pediatric cancer patient changed her entire career.

Hearing Loss: Early Intervention Helps Kids Communicate

Deaf and hard-of-hearing infants enrolled in appropriate early intervention services by 6 months of age are likely to have normal language and cognitive development. Have an audiogram as early as possible so that your baby can be consistently exposed to language.

Families Are Our Partners in Care

"A chronically ill child presents a challenging journey for a family, but through partnering with the medical teams at Children's we have been able to truly experience the joys of being parents."

Fetal Heart Program

If a problem is detected during a routine ultrasound screening, an obstetrician (OB) can refer the patient to Children’s Heart Center specialists for a complete fetal cardiac evaluation.

The Best Transplant Care

Pioneering organ transplant surgeon Dr. Jorge Reyes directs transplant services at Children’s and the University of Washington Medical Center. He is also a professor and chief of the Division of Transplantation at the UW School of Medicine.

The Best Gastroenterology Care

Children’s recently welcomed Dr. Simon Horslen, a pediatric hepatologist in the Division of Gastroenterology. Dr. Horslen, who came from the University of Nebraska where he was the medical director of the pediatric transplant program, will help lead the expansion of Children’s transplant program.

Innovative Treatments for Epilepsy Patients

Children’s comprehensive epilepsy program is designed to meet more than just medical needs. “We realize the entire family is impacted by a child’s illness and we are here to try and help them through it.“

Finding the Beat

Though Children’s Hospital has been a leader in pediatric heart surgery for decades, the program took a quantum leap forward two years ago when heart surgeon Dr. Gordon Cohen agreed to lead the team.

Team Care for Cleft Lip and Palate

Children’s multidisciplinary approach to cleft lip and palate provides an ideal environment for an infant with a cleft. A craniofacial pediatrician oversees the care of each child, creating a treatment plan tailored to the child’s condition and then coordinating care among the other specialists on the child’s care team.

Electrophysiology Reduces Heart Transplants

"When a child’s heart beats too fast," says Dr. Jack Salerno, Children’s electrophysiologist, "we can use radiofrequency ablation to cauterize a small area of tissue that prevents the irregular heartbeat from recurring."

New Options for Treating Heart Defects

With cardiac catheterization, doctors use the bloodstream to get to the heart. Doctors make an incision in a vein near the groin, then insert a flexible hollow tube called a catheter.

Diabetes Team Earns Prestigious Award

Children’s diabetes self-management program has received a stamp of approval by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Read more about the ADA Education Recognition program.

Children’s Hospital Research Aims to Prevent Group B Strep

It’s the most common cause of life-threatening infections in newborns in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but most pregnant women have never heard of it.

Life and Limb: Improving Bone Tumor Treatment

A lot has changed over the last two decades in the treatment of bone tumors. As recently as the early 1980s, amputation was the standard of care and survival rates for cancerous bone tumors were less than 50%.

Excellent Care and Outcomes for Children with Heart Disease

About one in every 100 babies born in the United States has a heart defect. Most of them will need treatment or surgery.

Refuse to Give Up

When the kidneys are damaged through infection, injury or defect, the natural healing process is disturbed. Dr. Allison Eddy studies the cellular and molecular processes that regulate how the body’s tissue responds to injury.