GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Ten years ago the Skyline of Grand Rapids was forever changed with the opening of the new Helen DeVos Children's Hospital.
At the opening ceremony, Helen DeVos made a prediction: "I think that this hospital is going to be recognized as a very important Children's Hospital not only in Grand Rapids and Western Michigan, but way beyond," she said.
And it has.
For two years in a row, The Helen DeVos Children's Hospital has been recognized as one of the top 50 Children's Hospitals by U.S. News and World Report.
That's just one recognition of the impact the hospital has made in West Michigan. Another is through the families they've helped.
"We couldn't have made it anywhere else." Holly Monroe credits Helen DeVos Children's hospital with saving the life of her 3 month old son Calvin. "Within less than 5 minutes of being there he coded."
Calvin was put on a heart lung by-pass machine and placed under the care of a pediatric heart team. "We literally made it in the nick of time. We wouldn't have made it to Ann Arbor, which would be the closest place they would send high risk cases to," Monroe said.
Because of the the advanced care available at the new Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, Calvin is able to stay close to home in Grand Rapids and live a normal life between his procedures, which included his open heart surgery which was performed at the hospital.
"It really met a community need." While DeVos Children's Hospital existed prior to the big blue building, Dr. James Fahner says it couldn't provide the advanced care that pediatric patients like Calvin needed.
"We've come so far so quickly — more than anyone would have expected," said Dr. Fahner, who has been their since the beginning. "I would say it has far exceeded the expectations. I hope that Rich and Helen themselves are kind of looking down and smiling at what has been accomplished and what we have yet to accomplish."
The Helen DeVos Children's Hospital sees patients from West Michigan to neighboring states and even around world. They travel to the hospital for kidney transplants, bone marrow and stem cell transplants, cancer treatments, pediatric heart procedures and many more specialties.
But Dr. Fahner says the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital doesn't plan to stop there. "There's more work to do we need to learn we need to move forward we need to bring research opportunities here and we need to keep educating our best and brightest minds to stay here in West Michigan."
The hospital is also currently exploring the opportunity to bring a pediatric heart transplant program to the hospital.
But there's one that Dr. Fahner is hopeful will help find a cure for childhood cancer in West Michigan. "What I'm excited about is this new era of personalized and precision medicine and harnessing genomic medicine to do so much better a job of being able to target cancer cells."
And we're excited to see what advancements Helen DeVos Children's Hospital will make in the next 10 years.
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