Meet Isaiah

There are some dates you never forget. For Isaiah's parents, that date is October 16, 2012 – the day they found out their two-year-old boy had a cancerous brain tumor.

Isaiah was brought to the Emergency Department at Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children due to terrible headaches and eventually made the hospital his home for 10 weeks. During this time, he went through a 12 hour brain surgery, received 33 radiation treatments, had a tracheotomy and was fed through a feeding tube to keep him alive.

Today, Isaiah is cancer free! He loves going to SeaWorld, playing legos, going bowling and swimming with his older brothers. From his time spent with the Music Therapy staff and in the Child Life playrooms (his favorite part of the hospital), to the researching oncologist that helped save his life, Isaiah and his family benefited from the funds raised by CMN Hospitals partners and the community of Central Florida.

Meet Kendall & Carson

Heather was only 20 weeks into her pregnancy with twins Kendall and Carson when she went into labor and thought she would lose her babies. But thanks to the specialized team at Orlando Health Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies, doctors were able to delay delivery and keep the twins in utero for an additional 47 days, eventually delivering at 26 weeks.

Kendall and Carson were immediately placed on life support in the Alexander Center for Neonatology (NICU) at Orlando Health Winnie Palmer, which was just the beginning of their journey. Both twins had an intraventricular brain hemorrhage and were diagnosed with chronic lung disease. Carson was also battling hydrocephalus and had to have a shunt placed to drain the fluid which was creating pressure on brain.

Kendall and Carson completed physical and occupational therapies through Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, and their parents are grateful that their babies born weighing less than two pounds are now great older siblings to their younger brother Cooper!

Meet John Parker

John Parker was just seven when he was severely injured while playing with neighbors on the upstairs balcony of his family's rental home.

John Parker was out playing with his friends,” explained his dad Tim. “They were playing spy games. He took a look over the upstairs balcony fence to see if he could spot his friends on the swing. He stepped up on the wall and tried to jump back, and his shirt somehow got stuck on the top of the fence. As he fell, he was pulled forward and the spike at the top of the picket went through his neck.

After calling 911 and getting John Parker downstairs, the firefighters who responded to the emergency call loaded him into the ambulance as quickly as they could. His mom, Sarah, accompanied John Parker and Tim was ready to follow once he got John Parker's brother and sister situated with neighbors. When Tim asked where they were taking his injured son, the firefighter in charge immediately replied with an answer of the trauma center at Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children.

“The hardest part of an event like this is turning your child over to someone else,” said Sarah. “The EMTs said that they were taking him to the right place. They told us that without a doubt, we're going to Orlando Health Arnold Palmer. They have the best trauma unit. That's where you need to be.” Luckily, John Parker narrowly missed severing any arteries or puncturing his spinal cord and only needed surgery to repair the wound. Today John Parker is doing well and his family is grateful for the live-saving care their son received from the team at Orlando Health Arnold Palmer.

Meet Lauren

When Lauren was born at Orlando Health Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies, there was no indication that she was anything but a completely healthy baby. The next day, she was taken to complete standard newborn testing in order to prepare their family to go home. Testing took longer than expected and Lauren’s parents, Melanie and Patrick, were informed that she had not passed her pulse oximetry screening that measures the level of oxygen in the blood. The pulse ox base line score was a 95 and Lauren scored a 94, which meant an echocardiogram was required. Following blurry images, a second echocardiogram was ordered and this time the images were clear - and they showed that Lauren had a congenital heart defect. Lauren’s parents were in shock as they listened to doctors tell them she had Total Anomalous Pulmonary Vein Return (TAPVR), which meant her veins that should route back to the left side of the heart instead went down into her abdomen.

Like zombies, they walked across the bridge connecting Orlando Health Winnie Palmer to the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children where she prepared for surgery. The next morning, three-day-old Lauren was taken for surgery and nearly eight hours went by before her parents saw her again. Amazingly, 11 days later she was discharged and her family was finally able to go home.

Melanie and Patrick are forever grateful for the high level of care that Lauren received, as well as the state of the art equipment that is used at The Heart Center at Orlando Health Arnold Palmer where she will continue her follow up care into adulthood.