Children’s Hospital Annual Report
Children’s Miracle Network Child Champion Shine Duby and his family.
Twenty-four grants totaling more than $2 million have been awarded by Children’s Miracle Network at UC Davis to clinicians and researchers at UC Davis Children’s Hospital. Eighteen grants will enhance the clinical care of children, while six grants were awarded for research directly improving the health and welfare of children.
Since 2011 funds have been raised for UC Davis Children’s Hospital’s Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department, which supports the emotional needs of pediatric patients and families. Annual donations from Spirit Halloween’s Spirit of Children Foundation fund the UC Davis child life fellowship program, which provides additional training and supervision to aspiring certified child life specialists. Over the 14-year partnership, donations have made it possible for child life services to grow and expand into the Children’s Surgery Center, Radiology Department and the Pediatric Infusion Center. Annual donations from the foundation topped the $1 million mark last year.
UC Davis Children’s Hospital is a proud member of the Children’s Miracle Network (CMN), an international nonprofit dedicated to raising funds for, and awareness of, children’s hospitals. Donations create miracles by funding medical care, research, equipment and programs that save and improve the lives of our children including this year’s local Children’s Miracle Network child champion Shine Arslanian.
Shine arrived five weeks early at a small hospital near his home. He weighed just 4.5 pounds. He was immediately transported to UC Davis Children’s Hospital. Doctors noticed that Shine’s jaws and eyes couldn’t open, his knees wouldn’t extend completely, and his fingers and toes were joined together. He was diagnosed with Popliteal Pterygium Syndrome (PPS) Bartsocas-Papas type, a rare condition, and with a complicated disorder known as ectodermal dysplasia. Shine has had 22 surgeries to date, including the amputation of his legs above the knee at 2 years old. Now in first grade, he hopes to be a Paralympic athlete, and he’s taking his role as Champion seriously. His larger-than-life image already appears on the sides of two Knight Transportation and Swift Transportation semitrucks which will drive across the country. Every year, 170 Children’s Miracle Network hospitals identify a “champion” in each of their communities to serve as the face for children treated at their local children’s hospital.
