Our Patients

When Cheri and Terrion Cross left San Diego in 2016 to come to St. Louis, Missouri, they had been married for two years trying to have children. A blended family, Cheri and Terrion were already parents to teenagers, Elijah and Trinity, but they had hoped for more children to add to their happy home. Cheri…

“It was the best summer I ever had,” said 13 y/o Sophie, as she recalled the months leading up to her diagnosis. “I was on swim team and achieved some of my best times ever. I did drama camp and had lead roles. I did volleyball clinics. I played soccer. My family went to Six…

Eleven-year-old Jaxson is the third son of four boys to parents, Ryan and Kate from Wentzville, MO. Like most eleven-year-old boys, Jax has a passion for gaming – especially for the game Fortnite. He spends a lot of time on Fortnite, has a love for the outdoors, loves the beach, loves camping, loves his family,…

June 2021 – Tori and Zach’s son, Graham (then two years old), started complaining of his belly hurting. The following month, in July, Graham rapidly fell ill after returning home from a family hiking trip to West Virginia. Tori and Zach took him to a nearby urgent care where doctors ordered an x-ray. The x-ray…

“My pregnancy was completely normal. I had just had my 30 week ultrasound, where my doctor welcomed me to the third trimester and told me that I was doing great,” Kassie reflected.   “Shortly after that, I unexpectedly started spotting”, Kassie said, “Ty and I went to the hospital (SSM Health St. Joseph’s West) and the…

In August 2021, after attending only the first few days of Pre-K, 4 year-old Beckett was too ill to continue school. He had come down with Covid but didn’t have the typical symptoms and couldn’t seem to recover. Worried parents Samantha and Kenny knew Beckett wasn’t himself. “Something was very wrong,” said Samantha. “We went…

When Gretchen learned her unborn son had Down syndrome, she was shocked and scared. Would she love this baby? Would his big brothers accept him? Would he even survive? As a young mom, she wasn’t sure she was equipped to care for him properly, but committed herself to giving him the best life possible —…

In October of 2021, Jennifer and Brian took their 2 year-old son, Ollie to Urgent Care for a persistent belly ache. He had been saying his belly hurt on and off for a few weeks, but it had gotten worse for him after a fall on the playground. Knowing that COVID could present as gastrointestinal…

Frank Marchesi, III., of O’Fallon, MO was a healthy 16 year-old who enjoyed hanging out with his friends, working out and playing hockey. Life changed abruptly on 03/29 when Frankie was taken to SSM Health St. Joseph Lake St. Louis ER for chest pains. After blood work and an EKG, Frankie was diagnosed with Pericarditis. …

During their second pregnancy, Jack’s parents found out that they were carriers of the cystic fibrosis gene, meaning there was a 25% chance that their children would be born with this chronic illness. They were blessed with two healthy daughters before Jack was born on July 2, 2009, and tested positive for cystic fibrosis. Jack…