Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt facility dog “transforms tears to giggles on a daily basis,” said her handler.

Rush has spent her entire medical career at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Monroe Carell, arriving at VUMC in 1984 as a motivated resident passionate about helping the tiniest of patients in neonatology, joining the faculty in 1990, and rising through the ranks as a well-respected leader.

Four tick-borne illnesses are most common in Tennessee, including spotted fever rickettsiosis, ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Bystanders assumed the healthy teen — who has danced for nine years, six of those competitively — was overheated or exhausted. Conscious, though unresponsive to questions, Zoe quickly worsened.

Currently, children in Tennessee must travel out of state, often hours away from home, to receive the intensive rehabilitation care they need, creating significant hardships and burdens on families.

The discoveries about coronavirus biology that Denison and his colleagues made were foundational for the rapid validation of antiviral drugs and development of new vaccines that helped bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control.

Diane Attardi, MD, has a long history of caring for NICU babies as a neonatologist and NICU medical director throughout the Northeast.