Our Patients Copy

Tiffani Jones, a teaching assistant in the Illinois Special School District was expecting her first child, in early March, 2016. Unexpectedly, Tiffani contracted pneumonia in December 2015. Complications required her to be hospitalized for the remainder of her pregnancy at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital. Her illness lingered on and baby Konnor was born at…

Barrett Earnest has a calm demeanor and contemplative eyes. In six short months of life, he has undergone 10 medical procedures to address a cleft lip and palate, a heart defect and lung problems. His family anticipates several more procedures to deal with other health issues before Barrett turns 5 years old. “I promised myself…

Eighteen years old. Eighteen years at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital. Now an adult patient, Michael Ball literally can’t remember a time – when the hospital, its people, or the disease that keeps him here – were not a part of his everyday life. Michael Ball was born March 30, 2000, one month premature.…

Jack Naunheim was born on New Year’s Day, 2014. His mother, Myrrah, recalls how much she tried to “control” having him born on New Year’s Eve….but despite her efforts…. Jack obviously had other plans. Now at age 4, Jack has shown his family that “life not going as planned” can provide a strength and appreciation…

Henry’s mother Leticia was at a routine 20-week ultrasound when her obstetrician informed her that she had abnormally low amount of amniotic fluid, and that her growing baby’s kidneys AND bladder were significantly inflamed. She was quickly referred from her hometown doctor’s office in Carbondale, IL to the St. Louis Fetal Care Institute (FCI) at…

We found out we were pregnant in July of 2016. We had two other sons and eagerly awaited our 20-week ultrasound in October. We hadn’t done a gender reveal with either of our other children and had planned a football-themed reveal for after practice with our eldest son’s team (dad was a coach on the team).…

The simple act of playing with a ball might not have been possible without the help of a special device that enables Kevin to breathe easier. Called neurally-adjusted ventilator assist, or NAVA, the system has a unique sensing mechanism that detects electrical activity in the diaphragm whenever a patient wants to take a breath and…

Third-grader D.J. Adams is great at math. “He has won trophies and certificates in math. I don’t know where he gets that — his parents hate math!” says his mother, Andrea Dodd. But she knows the source of another of his outstanding traits. “He talks A LOT. He picks that up from me because I…

Michael’s Superhero It was early in the morning so few people — or germs — were passing through the hospital’s atrium. Sarah Loness unbuckled Michael from his stroller and placed his feet on the floor. Spotting the water bubble sculpture across the room, he was off in a flash. Less than a month after a…