Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital will increase its footprint in Palm Beach County this winter with the opening of its first Pediatric Specialty Center in Wellington. The new center will help fill the need for pediatric specialty services in that area, bringing the hospital’s first-class healthcare services and advanced technology closer to home for children in the Palm Beach community.

The 30,000-square-foot facility will become Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital’s third pediatric specialty practice in Palm Beach County, with the other two located in Boca Raton. The center will house a group of highly qualified physicians in multiple pediatric specialties and a first-class team to provide exceptional patient- and family-centered care in a warm and child-friendly setting. Among the pediatric specialties planned for the new center are endocrinology, otolaryngology, general surgery, neurology, orthopedics and pulmonology. In line with the high-quality healthcare that has made Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital one of South Florida’s leading pediatric hospitals for 25 years, the new facility will feature rehabilitation services and some of the latest in radiology technology, including MRI and ultrasound.

When Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital opened in September 1992 – composed of a few units on a single floor of Memorial Regional Hospital – Joe DiMaggio himself was there to celebrate. Since then, it has grown to the largest pediatric hospital serving Broward, Palm Beach and northern Miami-Dade counties. Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital is an award-winning, freestanding facility known for its advanced technology, clinical expertise, child-friendly environment and compassionate approach to care. Pediatric services are also now available at several locations throughout South Florida.

In September 2017, Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital marked its first quarter-century of service to patients and families. The 25th anniversary inspired celebrities and community leaders to raise a red glove in celebration of the milestone and capture heartfelt wishes on video.

Since the opening of Memorial’s pediatric outpatient dialysis unit in 2004, children with chronic kidney conditions have had Memorial’s skilled team of specialists to help them manage their disease. Now, Memorial Transplant Institute’s pediatric kidney transplant program at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital is in place to help children age 2 to 18 live higher-quality lives, free from dialysis.

“Transplantation is the final piece of the puzzle, the added service that will provide the full continuum of care,” said Alexandru Constantinescu, MD, Chief of Pediatric Nephrology. “Transplantation will allow us in many cases to bypass dialysis and lead to a much better outcome for the child.”

The pediatric kidney transplant program will offer transplant expertise through the team approach – including the services of dietitians, social workers, pharmacists and child-life specialists, to help patients throughout every step of transplant care. And because Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital and Memorial Transplant Institute develop lifelong relationships with patients, the team will be able to help transplant recipients smoothly transition from pediatric to adult specialists.

The pediatric transplant team is actively listing candidates. “It can take anywhere from a few months to a few years to receive an organ,” Dr. Constantinescu said.

Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital's ability to provide a healthy organ to a child with kidney disease will make a significant difference in his or her quality of life.

“We are ready and fully functional, with all the available resources and the expertise required to offer the gift of life to patients and families who need it,” Dr. Constantinescu said.

Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Pediatric Cardiomyopathy Program recently received accreditation from the Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation (CCF) for consistently providing high-quality cardiac care and specialized disease management to children with cardiomyopathy.

Cardiomyopathy is a chronic heart disease that affects how the heart pumps blood through the body and is known to be the leading cause of sudden cardiac arrest in children.

The hospital’s Cardiomyopathy Program is the only one accredited in South Florida and the second one in the state.

Caring for a child with multiple complex healthcare needs can be overwhelming. Parents and caregivers can count on the Complex Chronic Care Coordination Program at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital for help and guidance in managing their child’s care.

In conjunction with the patient’s primary care physician and specialists, the team works to optimize healthcare delivery and continuity of care for children with medically complex issues, considering their specific medical needs, care goals, and family and community support systems.

“As we make medical advances, more and more kids with complex chronic conditions are living longer, and we want to impact their quality of life,” said Jason Adler, MD, Medical Director, Complex Chronic Care Coordination Program, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. “We enhance the care we provide by bringing in services and resources that will improve the lives of our children.”

The program offers transition of care visits, office visits and on-call support, expert medical consultation and diagnostic services for children with rare diseases, expert medical consultation for complex medical decision-making, needs assessments for home and community-based services, and short- and long-term medical planning. Technology is often a key component in complex care management, as many patients depend on devices like home ventilators and feeding tubes.

The team is composed of critical care physicians, pediatric palliative care physicians, nurse practitioners and social workers who come together to navigate the complex health issues of chronically ill children with the goal of avoiding frequent hospitalization and improving their quality of life.

As obesity rates among children and adolescents continue to rise across the nation, studies show that bariatric surgery may have significant benefits for some pediatric patients. With that in mind, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital will launch its Adolescent Bariatric Surgery Program this year.

Memorial Healthcare System has been performing adult bariatric surgery for several years, but this is the first time the program will focus on adolescents. The program will focus on weight loss surgery, mainly the less invasive bariatric sleeve procedure. Intended for adolescents age 15 years and older, the program will include a team of surgeons, pediatric specialists, psychologists and nutritionists.

With appropriate lifestyle changes, the surgery can offer excellent weight loss results, according to Brett Cohen, MD, Surgical Director, Adolescent Bariatric Surgery Program, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.

“We’re preparing a complete weight loss management program,” said Dr. Cohen said. “We will look at the history of the weight problem and underlying causes, and address those in a step-wise manner. The program will include nutritional, medical and psychological support in an attempt to address these issues in the least invasive way possible. For those who need additional assistance, surgery will help make the weight loss more likely to be successful.”

Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital has launched a new Healthy Parenting podcast that educates consumers on topics ranging from serious medical conditions to trending issues on health, safety and parenting.

Listen to past episodes at jdch.com/podcast and subscribe on iTunes, Google Play or your favorite podcast app.

The heart condition Ariana was born with didn't pose a problem for the South Florida teen until she started having tummy aches at age 16. It was during a visit to Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital that doctors realized that her heart was deteriorating. Ariana's condition was causing her lungs to fill up with fluids that were dripping into her abdomen area. Her family was told that she would need a heart transplant.

"Nothing in the world could prepare you for something like that news," said Ariana's mother, Adriana.

On September 5, 2017, Ariana became the hospital's 32nd heart transplant patient. She, along with the other recipients, is forever connected to the hospital’s Heart Transplant program, which is celebrating seven years of providing children and teens like Ariana a new heart and a new life of beginnings and possibilities.

In Ariana's case, her transplant was made possible by a remarkable procedure now being performed by the hospital's multi-disciplinary medical staff.

To prepare Ariana for a transplant, doctors determined she would need a ventricular assist device (VAD) to get her strong enough for the life-saving heart transplant.

Ariana had been diagnosed at the young age of six months with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart's ability to pump blood is decreased because the heart's main pumping chamber, the left ventricle, is enlarged and weakened.

In August of 2017, Ariana became the first pediatric patient at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital to be implanted with a VAD, called the HeartWare. Previous patients were connected with a Berlin Heart, which also helped function of the heart. The HeartWare device is unique in that it is small enough to fit in the palm of a hand and its batteries fit in a school-sized backpack, allowing the child more freedom with mobility. Having a VAD implant allowed Ariana to gain strength and continue a fuller life while she awaited a heart.

"As always, families and patients when they are old enough, they sort of hesitate. It's the feeling of wait a minute, you are going to do one operation just to get me to that other operation but you need that first operation to make you well enough for the heart transplant," said Dr. Maryanne Chrisant, Medical Director, Pediatric Cardiac Transplant, Heart Failure And Cardiomyopathy at JDCH.

"When we do the heart transplant, that heart is going to be yours for life," she said.

The VAD was surgically placed in Ariana's chest, in a sac around the heart known as the pericardial space. The pump is connected directly to the pump at the bottom of her left ventricle, where it draws oxygen-rich blood through the pump and pushes it into the aorta. Once blood reaches the aorta, it can flow to the rest of the body.

"Another big thing about the device is that she was able to get to a point where she can get out of bed and potentially discharged to her home," said Dr. Immanuel Turner, one of Ariana's pediatric heart surgeons.

Ariana would only have to carry around a bag with an external battery console, instead of being attached to a large device such as the Berlin Heart used primarily on younger or small children.

Less than a month after receiving the VAD, Ariana's family got a 3 am phone call from the hospital.

"They said they had a heart for Ariana," the mother recalled.

After the successful transplant, Ariana was able to go home with a new heart and a bright future ahead.

Lily was just 2 months old when her mother, Latonya, noticed signs that something was not right with her baby.

“Her eyes were rolling back and she seemed a little lethargic,” said Latonya, who immediately took her daughter to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital where tests revealed she had a ruptured brain aneurysm associated with an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), a potentially life-threatening condition.

In Lily's case, it was an abnormal connection between the brain's arteries and veins, said Dean Hertzler, Chief of the Pediatric Neurosurgery Program at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital.

“It doesn’t go through the capillaries, and so then you have a high flow state going directly to a vein, and they’re very prone to rupture," Dr. Hertzler said.

A joint decision was made with Memorial Neuroscience Institute to avoid an open surgical procedure and pursue a minimally invasive one-time treatment using advanced imaging technology; the brain aneurysm was sealed off and the adjacent AVM was permanently closed. Lily made a full recovery and suffered no significant neurological impairment as a result of the bleeding.

“Everybody was great; they really took care of her,” said Latonya. “That was my first experience with Joe DiMaggio and everything went well. I was very pleased with the care she received.”