Fifteen years ago, Linda had no idea that the place she loved and where she spent so many hours volunteering would one day help her own precious child walk.
Even in the hospital, 8-month-old Geneva charmed everyone with her radiant personality.
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 incompletely formed. Without surgery, Geneva would have been paralyzed from the waist down by age three.
Linda and her husband Cameron were fortunate — they could afford to take their daughter anywhere in the world for her care. After speaking to many authorities, they were pleased to learn that their hometown experts at Seattle's Children's came with the highest recommendation.
When she was 8 months old, Geneva had corrective surgery at Children's, and today is running around and getting into everything. "She's perfect," beams Linda. "Geneva is a miracle."
As a Guild Association trustee and founder of a guild, Linda knew the hospital well, but when she experienced it as the parent of a patient, she gained a greater understanding of the need for more space and privacy for families. Geneva shared a room with a 1-month-old baby whose heart condition required noisy monitors and frequent staff visits, which would awaken and disturb Geneva.
"At one of the most stressful times in life, you involuntarily share your experience with others," Linda explained. "You have an audience for news that may be hard to hear. Geneva's room was crowded with machinery for multiple patients, and there wasn't enough space for my husband, my mother and me to be together with her."
More privacy and space are just two of the reasons Linda is excited about the new Janet Sinegal Patient Care Building. She thinks the wireless connection is a great feature that will allow parents to contact family and friends about a child's progress, and to alert a working parent who is needed at the hospital.
"Thank God for Children's," said Linda. "Cameron and I looked all over the world to get the best doctors and care for Geneva, and we had the best world-class facility right here. The new Janet Sinegal Patient Care Building makes it better than ever."