Treasures - Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics

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Now happily back at home, Granton stands tall in his treasured cowboy boots. wrote in his blog. “It was a lot of fun looking at different boots online and picking them out. These boots not only represented the excitement we felt about Granton leaving the hospital. They also are a symbol of what we have gone through and what God has taught us through this journey.” Despite a few setbacks along the way, Granton’s T-cell scores improved and he was able to transition off the feeding tubes. Thanks to his newly rebuilt immune system, he fought off the RSV, which he had been unable to shake for so long, by early September. The miracle that Daniel and Jenni had prayed for had come to pass, and the family believes that the hands of the medical staff at Children’s Mercy were the means God used to accomplish it. “Children’s Mercy has been so great,” says Jenni. “Whatever problem you have, there’s a doctor there who can help you. The staff has shown real concern and love for Granton.” Granton stands tall in his new cowboy boots. But even when an exact match bone marrow donor was identified for Granton, the doctors couldn’t perform the transplant because he was too sick to undergo the chemotherapy that would precede it. So, they opted for a cord blood transplant, which means that the transplanted cells come from the umbilical cord of a newborn instead of a bone marrow donor. Because cord blood transplants require a much lighter course of chemotherapy, Granton’s care team hoped that he would be able to tolerate it better in his weakened condition. Finally, the time came for the hero to load up his saddlebags and ride off into the sunset. On September 11, scores of cheering people lined the hallway to wish him well as he made his way down the corridor. And after all they had been through with him, there was hardly a dry eye to be seen. As he turned his face toward the west, Granton headed out the door with his boots on to the wide open spaces outside the walls of Children’s Mercy for the first time in half a year. And it didn’t matter that he was mounted on a wagon instead of a horse, because Cowboy Granton would live to ride another day. The cord blood transplant, which was performed on June 10, marked a key turning point for Granton. His white blood cell count began to improve almost immediately. By July 4, he had improved enough to have the ventilator removed and the freedom this represented gave new meaning to Independence Day for the Bayless family. Granton was getting better, and each sign of improvement was bringing him closer to the day when he would wear his cowboy boots out of the hospital. Granton and Mom getting ready to leave the hospital “We talked about what the boots would look like,” Daniel 4 | childrensmercy.org
Dr. Spielberg, center, meets with Kevin Kelly, MD, Pediatrician-In-Chief, left and Greg Kearns, PharmD, PhD, Chairman, Department of Medical Research to discuss the future of the new Center for Personalized Medicine. Dr. Stephen Spielberg Joins Children's Mercy: Taking Personalized Medicine to Another Level To be the best–for example, the very best pediatric hospital in the world-- you have to hire the best people, the cream of the crop, leaders in their specialty, and those visionaries who can predict where medicine is headed in the future. This is why Children’s Mercy has recruited Stephen Spielberg, MD, PhD to serve as Director of its new Center for Personalized Medicine and Therapeutic Innovation. He also holds the Marion Merrell Dow Endowed Chair in Pediatric Pharmacogenetics and serves on the faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. “What appealed to me about coming to Children’s Mercy is the same thing I’ve known for more than 30 years – it is an outstanding pediatric hospital, with the best Clinical Pharmacology and Medical Toxicology Department, both nationally and internationally,” Dr. Spielberg says. Dr. Spielberg also cited that during his employment at Johnson & Johnson, it was Children’s Mercy that they turned to for world-class clinical trials. “Without question, for the most ethical, efficient, and highest quality trials, Children’s Mercy has the expertise. Plus, we knew that Children’s Mercy would get the job done,” he says. Now, as Director of the new Center for Personalized Medicine and Therapeutic Innovation, Dr. Spielberg relishes getting back to his roots in pediatrics, pharmacology and genetics. “Children are wonderfully complex, and with the hospital’s approach, personalized medicine is poised to take off. And what I mean by personalized medicine is giving the right drug to the right patient, in the right dosage, at the right time,” Dr. Spielberg explains. The idea of “personalized medicine” is not new. Dr. Spielberg emphasizes that professionals always have wanted care to be individualized, focused on “me as a patient”, or “this specific person who seeks my help.” But the new technology available today can take “personalized” medicine to a whole new level. The new Center for Personalized Medicine will be a “living laboratory,” Dr. Spielberg says, testing hypotheses about the utility and validity of using genomic information to improve diagnosis and the entire process of pharmacology and therapeutics. Coupled with the outstanding medical and surgical services of the only pediatric medical center in a 250-mile radius of Kansas City, the center will be devoted to translating discovery into new approaches to drug therapy that will be individualized to the unique needs and makeup of each patient. treasures winter 2009 | 5
Page 1 and 2: treasures WINTER 2009 | FOR SUPPORT
Page 3: “At the worst point in the whole
Page 7 and 8: Brian and Mary Hofen with son Brade
Page 9 and 10: Lisa Barth's legacy of caring will
Page 11 and 12: Marlys and Mike Haverty are honorar
Page 13 and 14: Honors Children’s Mercy people an
Page 15 and 16: Dan Dechant, Senior Vice President

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