Posts tagged ‘Children’s Hospital’
THON Photo Slideshow
The 2011 proceeds from THON—the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon—once again topped a previous record and raised a staggering $9.56 million to benefit The Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital. The 46-hour event that ran from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon is the culmination of a yearlong fundraising effort by thousands of Penn State students at campuses across the state.
Some other THON numbers that are equally as impressive as the final tally:
- 708 students were selected as dancers.
- 11 bands provided entertainment to help sustain the dancers’ energy throughout the weekend.
- 240 families supported by The Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital participated in THON weekend.
- 10,409 THON donation cans were distributed throughout the year.
Here is a sampling of photos from the weekend event that helps Children’s Hospital faculty and staff meet their daily mission of providing top-notch, comprehensive care to children and their families and finding tomorrow’s cures for pediatric cancers.
Slide show photos were contributed by faculty, staff, students, Penn State friends, and Four Diamonds families, including: Michael Verderame, Andrea Horne, Savannah Smith, Jackie Miller, Judy Hoch, Conrad Gast, Jeffrey Drexel, Celeste Negley, Cheryl Kretz, Lauren Lubus, Beth Garrigan, Matt, Steph, and Lindsay Smith, Shayne Beecher, Debbie Eslinger, Darik Kirschman, Tammy Cope, Rachel Pantalone, Sharon Otstott, Kim Keim, Cunningham, The Bush family, Steph Beyer, Connie Strayer, Chrissy Derr, Anne Morrow, Laura Trimble and Kathy Setlock.
Additional photos from throughout the weekend are available at http://live.psu.edu. For photos from Friday, visit http://live.psu.edu/stilllife/2431; from Saturday, visit http://live.psu.edu/stilllife/2433 and from Sunday visit http://live.psu.edu/stilllife/2434. Collected photos from throughout the weekend can be found at http://live.psu.edu/stilllife/2432.
Topping Off Ceremony – The Final Beam Placement
Faculty, staff, donors, and patients and their families helped us mark a milestone in the construction of the new home of Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital when they joined us February 8 for the building’s “topping off”—placement of the final steel beam.
Dr. Harold L. Paz, Medical Center CEO, remarked on the importance of the Children’s Hospital to the central Pennsylvania region and the excitement of this milestone in the construction of the new 252,000-square-foot, five-story facility before construction workers and a crane hoisted the final beam into place. A ‘topping off’ ceremony is a long-standing tradition of construction workers, particularly steel workers, to commemorate the completion of a building’s structure – specifically the placement of the final steel beam. In keeping with the tradition, the beam placed atop Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital today was adorned with a small evergreen tree on one end and an American flag on the other.
February 9, 2011 at 5:26 pm pennstatemedicine Leave a comment
Handle with care: A nurse’s mission to prevent infant abusive head trauma
For new parents, caring for a crying baby can be very difficult, and often they are not aware of how frustrating it is until they are faced with a stressful situation. Sadly, research indicates that crying is the number one cause of physical abuse of infants, specifically Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS), also known as abusive head trauma (AHT). Statistics from the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome show that every year in the United States at least 1,200 to 1,400 children are shaken, and 25 to 30 percent of shaken babies die. Survivors of shaken baby syndrome often have lifelong complications, including brain damage, seizures, learning disabilities, and blindness.
Kelly Cappos, R.N., B.S.N., C.P.U.R., C.L.N.C., is one of three nurse coordinators for the Pennsylvania Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention and Awareness Program based at Penn State Hershey Medical Center and Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital. She and colleagues Carroll Rottmund, R.N., B.S.N., C.C.R.N., C.L.N.C., and Marie Killian, R.N., B.S.N., C.C.R.N., as part of this research-based parent education program, have educated nurses statewide at 111 children’s and birthing hospitals, oversee the office-based program in 16 central Pennsylvania counties and serve as a resource for child abuse prevention efforts worldwide.
The SBS Prevention Program was the brain child of Mark Dias, M.D., F.A.A.P., professor of neurosurgery, vice chair of clinical neurosurgery, and chief of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Penn State Hershey Medical Center. He began the parent education program in upstate New York in 1998. In 2002, he came to the Medical Center and under his guidance, the team developed his prevention model for education, which is completely nurse driven, into a program now widely recognized and embraced by maternal child health and neonatal intensive care nurses as well as child abuse prevention associations statewide. The program is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Pennsylvania is the first state in the nation to have 100 percent of hospitals educating parents as per the Dias Model. (more…)
The new Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital Combining the best care options under one roof
Early children’s hospitals were places to keep sick kids comfortable, administer medicine, and take vital signs. There wasn’t a lot of hands-on healing happening. Instead, the main duty of the first hospitals was to simply provide a clean, quiet space where these young patients weren’t exposed to outside germs and contaminants. Seen as a potential source of infection, parents and siblings were sent home when visiting hours ended, if they were allowed to visit at all.
Patients from the early days wouldn’t even recognize the soon-to-be constructed Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital as part of the same category. Care for the smallest patients has evolved into high-tech treatments and life-saving procedures, while considering the patient’s emotional and physical health. Hands-on treatment and state-of-the-art technology have been used at the Children’s Hospital for years, but it all will unite under one roof to make the stay easier for patients.
(more…)
Groundbreaking introduces new era for pediatric medicine
A new era in pediatric medicine began for Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital, as ground was broken for the new, freestanding building on November 13, 2009. The five-story, 252,000 square foot facility is scheduled to open in 2012.
More than 400 guests, including children and families; Children’s Hospital physicians, nurses, and staff; board members; donors; students; academic and health care partners; and government and community representatives, gathered on the site of the future facility to commemorate the groundbreaking.
The program featured, a Cirque du Soleil-inspired show, and a line-up of speakers that represented a few of the many constituent groups who helped make the new facility possible.
“This groundbreaking marks the start of a new era in health care,” said Edward P. Junker, III, former chair, Penn State Hershey Board of Directors, “and I thank each of you for your commitment to the children and families of central Pennsylvania.”
Children who have received treatment at Children’s Hospital also spoke about their experiences. Nine-year-old Joey Setlock, diagnosed in 2006 with Burkitt’s lymphoma, shared his excitement about the new facility. “I’m glad there will be a new hospital designed with kids in mind, with play spaces filled with lots of games, books, crafts, and movies. It will help kids like me get better faster.” (more…)
