Baystate Children’s Hospital is located within Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, and provides care for babies, children, and teens. It is the only full-service children’s hospital with Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Western Mass. Without Baystate, Boston would be the closest hospital for children seeking this kind of care. Unfortunately, Baystate does not receive any federal funding. Want to learn how you can contribute to the cause? Keep reading!
Umass Miracles and Dance Marathon
UMass Miracles is a student-run organization under the national organization, Dance Marathon, which has over 400 chapters across different Universities. Dance Marathon focuses on fundraising to raise money for Baystate Children’s Hospital. The money raised by UMass Miracles and other Dance Marathon chapters has helped Baystate Children’s Hospital immensely. Most recently, their fundraising efforts supported the implementation of a therapy dog, which has not only lowered the stress of the children being treated but also the stress of the nurses who work long, hard shifts.
UMass miracles x her campus
This year, UMass Miracles has reached out and asked our chapter to help assist them in raising funds for Baystate Children’s Hospital. We were honored to help raise both funds and awareness for a very important local Children’s hospital that works to support children in critical pediatric care. As previously stated, Baystate Children’s Hospital relies on the fundraising and support of the community to be able to provide the care that these children need.
To show how important our efforts are and to inspire fundraising efforts, UMass Miracles partnered us with a Miracle Child, a child whose life was positively impacted by their experience at Baystate Children’s Hospital. We will be fundraising in honor of our Miracle Child’s story, Lulu, who is a 5 year old who was originally diagnosed with a pulled muscle in her neck. After her symptoms worsened, Lulu’s parents brought her to her Primary Care Physician who referred her to Baystate Children’s Hospital. Baystate was able to diagnose Lulu with Retropharyngeal and peritonsillar abscesses. Without the surgery that Lulu needed, serious complications could have occurred such as: blocked airways, swelling and inflammation of the chest, blood clots in the neck, and infection that spreads to your nearby tissues and organs like your lungs. Luckily, because of the work of Baystate Children Hospital, Lulu was able to get the surgery she needed and has made a full, healthy recovery.
Lulu’s story shows just how important it is that children’s necessary pediatric care is readily available to them. That is why it is so important that we keep the doors of Baystate Children’s Hospital open and ready for more children like Lulu who are in need of medical attention.
If you or anyone you know would like to donate to Baystate Children’s Hospital, please do so at this link. All proceeds go directly to Baystate Children’s Hospital.
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