Patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital are finding messages written to them in huge letters when they look outside their windows. The Ironworkers Local 86 crew assembling the frame of the hospital's new seven-story expansion building next door have been spray-painting greetings to them on the steel beams. "The new building’s skeleton is alive" with more than 50 names: "greetings to Kitty, Colby, Kyle and Istvan. To Violet, Seth, Josh and Austin. To Rachel, Adam, Gillie-Jane and Christofer." Photo Gallery. Local television news segment. (Via)
posted by zarq on Oct 8, 2011 - 27 comments

The Summer 2011 issue of Stanford Medicine Magazine is about "Surviving Survival": The Woman Who Fell To Earth / Khmer Rouge on Trial / A Kid Again / Her Stroke of Insight / RxErcise [more inside]
posted by zarq on Jul 16, 2011 - 11 comments

Deep Grief: Creating Meaning From Mourning (Article from NPR.) How some parents have channeled their grief over the loss of their children into memorial efforts that provide for others. [more inside]
posted by zarq on Feb 9, 2010 - 7 comments

Bottom half of the final inning, Red Sox batting, Yankees ahead by a run. Runner on third and 2 outs. Up at bat is the Red Sox's star hitter, followed by the weakest hitter in the lineup. Do you pitch to the star, or intentionally walk him? The choice is obvious in the majors, but not so much in the PONY leagues. Or is it? Complicating matters - the weak hitter is a cancer survivor with ongoing health issues. Not surprisingly, there's been a story in the local weekly. Then it got picked up by a major local paper, a radio station, and now Sports Illustrated. A lot of attention for a kid who was last in the paper 6 months ago when he got his Make-A-Wish granted.
posted by booksherpa on Aug 10, 2006 - 53 comments

Alana Dung passed away quietly in her sleep at age 3 from leukemia, but not before inspiring 30,000 people in Hawai'i to register themselves with The National Bone Marrow Registry. Since her parents and brother were not marrow matches, her family made her battle public. To honor her memory, they eventually formed the Alana Dung Research Foundation, an organization dedicated "to support research efforts designed to improve the quality of life for children with serious illnesses." Her brief life also inspired a play. Is your marrow registered?
posted by Joey Michaels on Sep 25, 2002 - 17 comments