B101.5’s Care-A-Thon: Your Support Helps Children Grow Up Stronger
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B101.5’s Care-A-Thon: Your Support Helps Children Grow Up Stronger
Care Close to Home for Charlotte
Charlotte is a 6-year-old who loves to paint rainbows and play with dolls. As a toddler, she had a respiratory illness that led to a diagnosis of a rare immune deficiency called ICF Syndrome. An immunologist at UVA Health in Charlottesville recommended a bone marrow transplant at Children’s National Hospital. The surgery, recovery and follow up treatment would be a large undertaking, but it would save her life. “Children with ICF don’t live long because of the severe risk of infection,” says Charlotte’s mom, Jamie.
The family lives in Virginia, more than 50 miles south of the hospital’s main campus. Charlotte had a transplant when she was 5 and stayed for more than a month. Once she was ready to go home, her team needed her back at the hospital for twice-a-week follow-up appoints for labs, scans and infusions. The back-and-forth travel was hard on the whole family, including Charlotte’s four older sisters, three of whom are home-schooled. “Driving to D.C. would mean half my day — or more — was gone,” Jamie says.
Soon there was good news: Charlotte could switch to oncology care in Fredericksburg with Christina Weidl, MD. She could also get needed specialty care in urology and endocrinology as well as do all her labs and scans, 15 minutes from home.
“It’s great for Charlotte because she doesn’t have to sit in a car seat for so long or miss so much school,” Jamie says. “She loves Dr. Weidl. It’s also great for my other kids who have us home more.” Charlotte, now in kindergarten, recently transitioned to a single appointment per week.
“I had never come across the kind of care that Children’s National offers,” Jamie says. “It has been so wonderful for my daughter and my whole family. They really care and it shows in everything they do. I’m so happy to have this amazing team in our backyard.”
Building Impact for Families in Our Community
Every year during the B101.5 Care-A-Thon, generous radio listeners help bring Children’s National care closer to home for families in the Fredericksburg area. Children’s National Fredericksburg location now includes pediatric specialists such as:
- Cardiology, in office
- Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease Program, in office
- Endocrinology, in office and via telehealth
- Neurology, in office and via telehealth
- Physical Therapy, in office
- Gastroenterology, in office and via telehealth
- Hematology/Oncology/Infusion, in office and via telehealth
Chuck “Archer” Miller is Operations Manager at B101.5. For him, supporting Children’s National is personal. In 2009, his 2-year-old son had an unexpected surgery to remove a blockage in his kidney. His daughter, 17, receives ongoing treatment at the hospital for a blood circulation disorder. “Last year when we learned she would need cardiac catheterization, we knew she would receive the best quality of care,” Chuck says. “Children’s National raises money to ensure every child receives personalized care. It’s one of the many reasons we donate our own money and work so hard to support the B101.5 Care-A-Thon.”
