Glennon - The News Feed of Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital

Representatives from Aflac - Missouri East present a check from the sale of the 2009 Aflac Holiday Ducks to former patient Andy Piery in the Costas Cancer Center.

The Aflac Holiday Ducks are sold exclusively at Macy’s stores, and each year features a new design. Proceeds from the sale of these ducks are used to benefit children with cancer.


L-R: Robin Callaway, Aflac Missouri East State Training Coordinator, Christina Stegeman Aflac Missouri East Cancer Center Ambassador, former patient Andy Piery, Jennifer Voyles, Andy’s mother Robin Waters, and Sue Yates, director of the Costas Cancer Center.

Louisa Salvin, R.N., clinical nurse in the urology service at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center, received the 2010 Nancy Fedak Ross Exceptional Nurse Award.

Salvin, a Glennon nurse since 1979, received the award during a ceremony held Tuesday, May 4. The award is presented by Don Ross and his wife, Nancy Fedak Ross, who was a nurse at Glennon. She worked on 2 South, which then was a burn unit. She remained at Glennon for six years and advanced to assistant head nurse before leaving the hospital to raise three sons.

For the past five years Salvin has cared for spina bifida patients undergoing continence surgeries.  “She has developed extensive teaching materials as well as surveillance programs for these children and young adults,” said Jeannie Mollohan R.N., MSN(R), NNP-BC, Glennon’s executive director of nursing. “She works with them to become more independent with their bowel and bladder functions. Lou feels the best part of her job is experiencing these children and young adults as they become more independent and self-confident in their lives.”

The award was presented by Ross, who praised all Glennon nurses. “I love being back here. You are all winners to me. I know you do wonderful work and mean so much to Cardinal Glennon and the kids.”

Also nominated for the 2010 Ross Nursing Award were Katie Robbins and Mary Farmand, neonatal intensive care; Tricia Steiniger, nursing operations team leader; Carolyn Sutter, pediatric intensive care; Lynn Yates, dialysis; Debbie Boylan, genetics; Ginny Eason, transitional care unit; Kathy Forcelledo, ambulatory care; Lydia Johnson, neurofibromatosis service; and Tiffany Moton, clinical documentation.

Mollohan said the nominees represent 300 years of nursing experience with 250 of those years spent at Glennon.
“Today we are recognizing registered nurses who demonstrate positive patient and family care outcomes by improving the professional practice of nursing,” she said. “In other words, we are recognizing nurses who take nursing care from special to exceptional by providing the best care and best results. Each of the nominees is deserving of recognition and exhibits the traits of exceptional nursing that make Cardinal Glennon such a very special place for children and their families.”

Baby had fetal surgery in October to expand lung capacity;
Born in procedure new to middle America

ST. LOUIS, January 22, 2010 -- A St. Louis mother and her newborn made history this morning at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center. Ali Davis became the first baby ever delivered at Cardinal Glennon when he was born at 8:59 a.m.

Ali was born through what is called an EXIT procedure, which involves partially delivering the infant through a cesarean incision then establishing the baby's airway before cutting the umbilical cord.  The procedure was performed by a team from the St. Louis Fetal Care Institute, a collaboration between Cardinal Glennon, SSM St. Mary's Health Center and Saint Louis University.  The first EXIT procedure in St. Louis was performed by the same team in late November at St. Mary's Health Center.

Ali Davis was delivered at Cardinal Glennon because it was considered likely he would need ECMO (heart-lung bypass) support immediately after birth.  After his birth, however, Ali was wheeled to the Cardinal Glennon NICU without being placed on ECMO.  This was unexpected, but may be due to the fetal surgery that Ali had 12 weeks earlier.

Ali's mother, Sala Davis of St. Louis, was originally referred to the Fetal Care Institute because an ultrasound at 20 weeks’ gestation found the baby's lungs were so small that they were virtually undetectable.  The lungs were small because a condition called congenital diaphragmatic hernia allowed the fetus' intestines to migrate into his chest cavity and block lung growth.

Through a procedure called "tracheal occlusion," the FCI team blocked the baby's airway to allow fluid in the lungs to expand and cause the lungs to grow more rapidly than they would have done otherwise, giving the baby a chance to live.

"We'll have to continue to monitor the baby and see how he does, of course, but we're very pleased with how things have gone thus far," said fetal surgeon Ed Yang, M.D., co-director of the Fetal Care Institute along with maternal-fetal medicine specialist Mike Vlastos, M.D.

"The baby's oxygen saturation level was at 92 percent when he left the operating room, which we were very pleased with," said Vlastos, noting that saturation levels following a normal delivery would be around 98 to 99.

Ali's oxygen saturation level at birth was expected to be in the 70s, so the high number indicates that the fetal tracheal occlusion procedure may have changed the outcome for Ali.

The St. Louis Fetal Care Institute is the only program in middle America to offer the EXIT procedure and one of a handful of programs in the country that provides tracheal occlusion.  For more information on the Fetal Care Institute, visit www.stlouisfetalcare.com.

Clean hands, a cool-mist humidifier and a smoke-free home are keys to keeping your kids healthy through the winter, Dr. Ken Haller told Working Mother magazine. Haller, a member of the division of general academic pediatrics at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center, also reminded parents that there have been changes in recommendations for the use of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines by children under four years of age. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is advising parents not to give these products to younger children.
For more on this story in Working Mother, click on this link:

http://www.workingmother.com/web?service=direct/1/ViewAdvancedPortalPage/PortalBlocks/dlinkArticle&sp=S1952&sp=91