Seven years ago, the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt opened its doors as Middle Tennessee’s only freestanding children’s hospital. So began a voyage to provide families and children across the region and the nation with the highest quality, compassionate care possible, as well as to identify new and better treatments for all children.
We’ve come a long way since that momentous occasion in February 2004. Over the years, we have experienced tremendous growth, serving more patients each year and recruiting the top pediatric specialists from around the country.
Now, we’re embarking on the next phases for Children’s Hospital. We began construction in March on a $30 million, 30,000-square-foot addition atop the northwest corner of the hospital. The expansion will add 33 acute care beds. We also will continue to tackle childhood cancer, prematurity and childhood heart disease – three common childhood diseases in Middle Tennessee.
To lead us through this next chapter in Children’s Hospital history, we have adopted a new tagline, “Where discovery brings hope.” We’ve also given our magazine a new look, and a new name, Hope.
We want to serve as a place of unwavering hope for all the families who walk through our doors every day. We have the best doctors, nurses and staff who are committed to excellence in care.
As a world-class leader in research, our physician-scientists continue to search endlessly for discoveries in vaccine development, fetal and pediatric cardiac surgery, diabetes, prematurity, and more.
The stories you will read reflect the hope that families and staff at Children’s Hospital experience every day. In this issue you’ll meet some of our patients, like Zakia, a bubbly, spirited 3-year-old who with the help of her physicians and a new Center of Excellence is successfully battling her sickle cell disease. You’ll also read about our role to help unravel the genetics of autism and about efforts to prevent type 1 diabetes.
We hope you will enjoy these stories, and continue to accompany us on our journey. We could not have come this far in our mission to help children without the incredible support from our community, patients, staff and community pediatricians.
Sincerely,
Luke Gregory
chief executive officer
Margaret Rush, M.D.
acting chair, Department of Pediatrics and chief of staff
John W. Brock III, M.D.
Surgeon-in-chief, director of the Division of Pediatric Urology and Monroe Carell Jr. Chair