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Patient Stories

During her senior season of high school wresting, Kate felt something was off. When Kate’s right shoulder dislocated from her socket during a wrestling practice, pain started to occur. Kate dismissed it at first but soon, this pain became persistent during every practice and started to impact her everyday life.  Her shoulder constantly dislocated while out on the mat and it held her back from taking good shots against opponents. Kate continued to persist through the pain until she could no longer reach for something or close a car door without discomfort. “When I walked through the halls at school, I felt my shoulder being separated from the socket. It felt loose – that’s the only way I can describe it. It is a scary feeling when you know that your arm is not properly attached to your body, let alone wrestling with it,” says Kate. This injury had a […]

Tammy noticed her daughter’s size difference from a young age. Summer was consistently smaller than her peers growing up, but her parents and pediatrician never suspected a serious issue. When Summer was about 7 years old, the family took a trip to Disney. Unlike their previous vacations, Tammy and Erik realized that Summer was struggling to keep up. This behavior was concerning because it was not the norm for their bubbly, energetic daughter. Unfortunately, Summer’s limp worsened, she experienced immense stiffness and hip pain, and she struggled to do what she loves most: dance. After an attempt at physical therapy, many x-rays and testing, Summer was diagnosed with Multiple Epiphyseal Dysplasia (MED) in August 2020. MED is a rare genetic disorder that effects the development of the joints in the legs. Her doctors recommended Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware to see orthopedic surgeon Dr. Will Mackenzie and orthogeneticist Dr. Mike Bober. […]

Brooke Renton’s life changed substantially when her daughter, Olivia, was born in March 2021, both in the physical sense (the family permanently relocated from Tallahassee to an Orlando suburb to be closer to Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida) and in the emotional sense when she knew she would do anything for her sweet baby girl.   Born with a rare chromosomal condition called Trisomy 18 at a hospital in Tallahassee, Olivia had to be on a ventilator for the first 11 days of her life. The day before she was supposed to go home, doctors had to perform lifesaving CPR and place Olivia back on a ventilator. Olivia’s heart was “pouring blood into her lungs” due to a hole in her heart known as a ventricular septal defect. NICU doctors in Tallahassee told the family that Olivia would need a specialized center that performed advanced pediatric heart surgery to correct the issue. Due […]

During the first trimester of her pregnancy, Christine Miller learned her son, Logan, was diagnosed with congenital cytomegalovirus infection (CCMV). Christine was told that her son was dying in utero and would likely not survive the birth. Since the CCMV diagnosis, the Miller family has been in constant contact with the infectious disease department at Nemours Children’s Health. At 32 weeks pregnant, Christine underwent an emergency C-section and Logan was born, weighing just 3 pounds. Immediately following birth, multiple calcifications were discovered on Logan’s brain. At this time, Logan was also diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. Fast forward 18 years, Logan and the Miller family still have a very close relationship with Nemours. In 2021, Logan had his first appointment with Dr. Shrader (Dr. Dabney followed Logan since birth). At first, Dr. Shrader was very pleased with Logan’s movement and progress from his previous hip surgeries. “But after talking with him […]

At 13 months old, William was formally diagnosed with quadriplegic spastic cerebral palsy by the distinguished team at Nemours Children’s Hospital.

My name is Alex Gaudlap. Also known as Raymond’s mom. Our journey with Nemours Children’s Health started in the fall of 2017 when we relocated back to New Jersey from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina due to Raymond not hitting developmental milestones appropriately. The doctors down South assured me Raymond was fine, but my motherly instinct told me he wasn’t. From the moment we stepped foot into Nemours Children’s, I felt like our concerns were listened to. Raymond’s first appointment at Nemours was with a neurologist in the Deptford location. Since we were new patients and basically starting from the beginning with tests, she ordered a routine EEG. We never would have thought that his first test would give us answers, but it did. Raymond was diagnosed with a rare form of epilepsy; that gave us some indication to why he had a global developmental delay. After receiving the epilepsy diagnosis, […]