We are happy to join in the choir to sing praises to Elia, Happy and Healthy Now!

"Elia struggled most of her life with repeated unexplained vomiting episodes that started when she was 3 years old. When she was five she was diagnosed with Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome. Episodes would happen every 8 weeks, give or take a couple of weeks at times, and would always end up with a trip to the ER or hospital admission due to its severity. She would throw up every 1/2 hour to every hour for 48 hours or longer, with intense stomach pains, and dehydration. Other than vomiting and stomach pains during each episode, she had no other symptoms, and her episodes would come without a warning and would stop as suddenly as it started.
 
In July of 2015, she went through what we thought was the worst episode yet. She was admitted to the hospital and by the 5th day test results showed that she was suffering from pancreatitis and complete intestinal blockage caused by an unknown cystic mass next to the her duodenum (first part of the small intestine). It was during surgery one week later that they discovered that she had a duodenal duplication cyst, a very rare congenital anomaly. They were able to partially excise the cyst, avoiding a more complicated surgery. It would take another two weeks for her to heal. The arts and crafts box [Bedside Adventure Kit] that Discovery Arts left for her kept her busy and helped take her mind off any pain or discomfort she was having. She also received a beautiful yellow fairy dress, wand, and wings when Discovery Arts visited the play room. While she could not wear the dress yet, she happily donned her wings every time she took a walk around the hospital floor. I am happy to say that she only had two more vomiting episodes after the surgery and is doing very well despite the unexplained bile duct dilatation she is now being monitored for."

~ Elia's Mom Fides

Read more to learn how the  minimally invasive surgery performed at the Pediatric Surgical Center at Miller Children’s Hospital helped Elia recover. She is now back to being a child and doing the things she loves like singing in her church choir.

Here is a beautiful story that Alyssa's mom wrote for us. What a special girl she is. Alyssa, is now 8 years old.

Alyssa was just three when she was diagnosed with leukemia. A year into her treatment she developed a virus in her brain. She became very sick and was in a drug induced coma for 5 days. When she finally woke up nobody knew what to expect. Alyssa could not speak, she could not walk and days later it was confirmed that she had permanently lost her sight. Alyssa had to relearn how to talk and walk but her right side remained weak and she has very limited use of her right hand. About three month's after Alyssa was released from the hospital she started to have seizures. On a good day she would have three or four seizure, on a bad day she could have up to thirty in an hour. About a year and a half after Alyssa lost her sight she finished her chemo treatment and was declared in remission. Normally this would be a big celebration but due to her uncontrollable seizures we wondered how long her little body could take it. This is when we sought out a surgical cure to Alyssa's seizures. Doctors at UCLA recommended removing Alyssa's left hemisphere of her brain. While we never had heard of such a thing we knew we had to take a chance to find a cure for her. In November of 2010 Alyssa underwent massive brain surgery, her doctors ended up removing two thirds of her left hemisphere in hopes of keeping her communication skills intact.

Alyssa had another long recovery ahead of her. She had to learn to talk and walk again but this red head was determined to survive. Her last seizure was in May of 2011. The surgery has worked. We are now reducing her seizure meds and everyday I see pieces of the little girl that was taken away from me return. Alyssa can walk and talk, she can do simple math and is learning Braille. Alyssa also knows has a service dog named Flint, he helps her with mobility and various other things that he was trained for. Alyssa has an amazingly funny personality and even though her sight is gone forever she see's more clearly than anyone I know.

During Alyssa's many stays at the hospital her only entertainment was the playroom. She especially looked forward to Thursday's as that was Discovery Arts day. She couldn't wait to go down to pick out a costume or to do a special craft. The days when she was too sick leave her room she would always ask "do I still get my costume?" but the women would already know that she was sick and they would have picked one out for her. We have dozen's of pictures of Alyssa dressed up in different costumes and her smile was never bigger than on the days she was a princess or a fairy. Hospital life is hard on everyone, especially the patient, but Discovery Arts offer a little escape from reality!

~ Alyssa's Mom

Earlier this month, 35 Edwards Lifesciences employees volunteered part of their day to decorate Bedside Adventure Kits for the children of Discovery Arts, as part of their ongoing "Strengthen Our Community” outreach program. Obviously there are a lot of talented and passionate artists at the global leader in the science of heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring. They donated enough art supplies, then decorated and filled more than 50 kits.

The entire cast and crew of Discovery Arts would like to extend a Warm Heartfelt Thank You to all of the Employees of Edwards Lifesciences who got creative for Discovery Arts ... You have brought joy into the life of a child. We hope you had fun!

Edwards Lifesciences' volunteers for this project included: John Bain, Nancy Boyd, Joyce Casella, Nicole Casella, Ginna Cuervo, Hang Dinh, Jessica Donovan, Kristy Faciane, Leslie Finney, April Frantzen, Diana Gonzalez, Nanette Henderson, Elsa Ibarbol, Priti Jhaveri, Jade Jourdan, Becky Kibbey, Laura Kibbey, Ric Kolibar, Frances Luong, Patrice Norton, Nicole Pascua, Jayshri Patel, Sharidan Railsback, Ashkan Rasooli, Bonnie Robinson, Karrie Rodriguez, Yolanda Saldana, Steve Shin, Taylor Strand, Andy Spilsbury Walker, Brian Williamson, Gayle Wills, and Amanda Zotinca.

... is the global leader in the science of heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring. Driven by a passion to help patients, the company partners with clinicians to develop innovative technologies in the areas of structural heart disease and critical care monitoring that enable them to save and enhance lives.

Edwards Lifesciences partners with physicians to innovate products designed to help patients live longer, healthier and more productive lives. Since developing the first heart valve in 1958, they have continued to meaningfully advance heart valve therapy and, more than 50 years later, remain the global leader in this field. In addition they also lead the development of new investigative technologies designed for the non-surgical replacement of heart valves.

Since you are here on our blog you may all ready know that Discovery Arts is a very special organization that brings Music, Art, Dance and Drama to children who are in the hospital receiving treatment for cancer and blood borne diseases. These very sick children all share one wish.... "to be normal".  Anything we can do to make their journey a little easier or a little brighter is our greatest wish. We are honored to serve these wonderful children and their families each and every week and all year long.

I would like to share my experience, strength and hope to bring light to why this is so important to children and their families. It was under very blessed circumstances that I met Discovery Arts’ kind and loving Executive Director Marilyn Clements. It took some time for me to gather the strength to come forward to actively participate with Discovery Arts. I remained very much in the background for many years offering to help here and there when I could. You see … I had to gather up some healing before I felt strong enough to be able to give back, or strong enough to share my story. God in his mysterious way has led me full circle.

The impact of watching your child live their life in hospital rooms – takes some time to heal from, if you can call it healing. I am now convinced that there will never be total healing … just a different way of coping.

Many years ago, my first child a sweet baby girl, Ilona Rene was born in Wiesbaden Germany on January 1, 1981. It was also my first wedding Anniversary. Just days later the Iranian Hostages were released. They were brought to Wiesbaden AF Hospital to debrief before heading home to the US. You might remember on January 20, 1981 President Carter ended his Presidency and Ronald Regan was inaugurated. Within 24 hours former President Carter traveled to Wiesbaden Germany to personally greet the Hostages on their release on January 21, 1981, after 444 days in captivity in Iran.

I was told on January 1st, when Ilona was 8 hours old, that there was a problem with her heart and she was immediately transferred to a children’s specialty hospital in Wiesbaden. I was still a patient myself so I had to watch them take her away in an incubator. This was my first heart break and I was only 19 years old myself. That visual is burned in my memory bank.

When I could get to Ilona the next day she was in a shared room with a very young child who was connected to an Iron Lung. He was probably 5 years old. I will never forget walking into this hospital room – one tiny baby all connected up with her hands tied down and this 5 year old clamped down with a respirator. This young boy was fully conscious and alert. He could see my pain every time I walked in the room – yet he was the one with tears streaming down his face – and unable to speak to me. He didn’t know English and I didn’t speak his language, but we communicated a lot during those days and nights. All I could do was stroke his arm and hair and let him know that I cared deeply for him. He had long soft curly brown hair and big round brown eyes. In the days I shared with him not once did he have a visitor; no Mom, no Dad, no Grandma or Grandpa, no brothers or sisters. No One! One of the biggest regrets in life my … why didn’t I get his name? I still have a need to know.

Ilona was transferred to Wiesbaden Air Force Hospital when she was 14 days old. On approximately January 24th we were medevaced by helicopter to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a US Army Hospital in Germany. That’s when we were so graciously celebrated by the Iranian Hostages. They had been watching us board the helicopter; me, a nurse and Ilona in an incubator. This was all very surreal, I was buckled in sideways as we took off, looking out of the side window of the helicopter. I will never forget the view of the snow drifts around the helicopter as we were lifted up to eye level to see the hostages who were on the 3rd floor balcony of the hospital waving at us, wishing us God Speed.


Once at Landstuhl it got much more intense – long … long hallways to get to ICU. Rougher treatments, with lots of poking and prodding. Ilona had her first Cardiac catheterization (of 5 total), which is a tube inserted in her hip artery to her heart, for diagnostic evaluation. The Air Force put us up in housing, a lot like Ronald McDonald house, which was walking distance to the hospital. It’s there at Landstuhl that we met Christopher C. and his parents Lux and Craig. Christopher was a heart baby about 6 months old, in ICU in a bed next to Ilona. His Dad was stationed in Italy, and they were brought to Landstuhl to get help for Christopher. We had the same doctors and since we shared this common bond we became close friends with Craig and Lux. Christopher seemed to be doing ok. He also had big brown eyes and a generous smile to every one. His mom Lux was from Laredo, TX so you could see the fire in his heritage. He was a fighter, and he was strong. We spent lots of time with Craig and Lux supporting each other and getting to know each other well. We all decided to take a break one evening and played card games late into the night. We actually got a moment of relief and laughed a lot that night. The next morning as I walked into ICU – I found Lux who had told us Christopher passed away a couple hours before. We were devastated by their loss. They were quickly shipped out. As God would have it – they were there for us later in all places, Texas.

Ilona spent much of her life in and out of the hospital. At about 2 months old she was able to come home to Schierstein where we lived, in a suburb of Wiesbaden. Every morning rain or shine, (or snow), we would go to see her Doctor at Wiesbaden Hospital. She was teeny, only 5 pounds at birth and only 9 pounds at 10 months old when we were asked to travel to San Antonio, Texas to converge with a group of doctors who had been meeting with doctors from around the world in Dallas who were studying this type of heart defect. Ilona had Endocardial Cushion Defect; an abnormal heart condition in which the walls separating all four chambers of the heart are poorly formed. We also learned later she had Ventricular Septal Defect and a deformed left septum and her aortic valve was deformed to the point of being almost non existent and the tissue separating the chambers of her heart were actually valve tissue. All this made it taxing on her heart, which created cardiac pulmonary edema and also affected her breathing, to top it off as she grew her enlarged heart was pressing on all her other vital organs.