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Patient Stories

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At Children’s National Hospital, we provide compassionate, professional care to thousands of patients every year. Our patients come from all over the United States and from more than 20 countries around the world. They have many different conditions and experience unique paths on their treatment journeys – but through it all they experience the same level of warm, family-centered care. Discover our patients' stories to understand their journey and see how it may relate to your own.

Sadie leans over pastel-colored blanket
Sadie's Story Newborn Neurologic Disorders

Sadie's Story Newborn Neurologic Disorders

Sadie is one of hundreds of infants with acute encephalopathy who have received whole-body therapeutic hypothermia at the Children's National neonatal intensive care unit. Whole-body therapeutic hypothermia is offered in the first few hours of life to preserve brain cells and to stave off disability or death.

noah sweek teaser img
Noah's Story Airway Lungs
noah sweek instory img

Noah's Story Airway Lungs

After Joshua and Sandra Sweek noticed that their 6-month-old son, Noah, was having breathing problems, they took him to the doctor. There, the baby was diagnosed with suspected asthma.

headshot of Carly Nguyen
Carly's Story Cancer
headshot of Carly Nguyen

Carly's Story Cancer

Bone marrow experts and a selfless donation save a local teen’s life.

Sophia
Sophia's Story Tetralogy of Fallot TOF
Sophia

Sophia's Story Tetralogy of Fallot TOF

During a routine 20-week prenatal ultrasound, Carol Kando-Pineda’s obstetrician in Fredericksburg, Virginia, spotted abnormalities in Carol’s unborn child that she referred to as “possibly inconsistent with life.”

Cuthbertson family strikes a pose
Heaven, Tiara and Messiah's Story Airway Lungs
Heaven and Messiah hug

Heaven, Tiara and Messiah's Story Airway Lungs

"My life has become better because I’m more educated and can help others,” Tiara Cuthbertson embraces being an asthma patient advocate.

Amarie on a park swing
Amarie's Story Premature Infant

Amarie's Story Premature Infant

Amarie, an infant born prematurely, is enrolled in a Children’s research study that seeks to understand how preterm birth affects the cerebellum.

side by side photo Kaylee Townsley Roxi Vasquez
Kaylee and Roxi's Story Kidney Diseases

Kaylee and Roxi's Story Kidney Diseases

Kaylee Townsley, a seventh-grader, is 12. Roxi Vasquez, a high school senior, is 18. They live in different towns and attend different schools but became "sisters" as they shared the same kidney transplant experience.

Gabriella Nelson
Gabriella's Story Nephrotic Syndrome
Gabriella Nelson

Gabriella's Story Nephrotic Syndrome

Gabriella was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, which meant her kidneys were leaking protein.

Bella claps her hands while wearing pink eyeglasses and a red hair bow
Bella's Story Epilepsy and Seizure

Bella's Story Epilepsy and Seizure

In the first weeks of life, Bella underwent a series of procedures that her doctors and family agreed were necessary to end constant seizures from hemimegalencephaly (HME), a rare brain disorder in which one half of the brain grows abnormal and large and misbehaves by triggering repeated difficult seizures.

Nina enters the pool
Nina's Story Allergies Immunology
Nina swim team

Nina's Story Allergies Immunology

Nina, an 18-year-old high school senior and competitive swimmer, is among a growing group of adolescents with a food allergy.

Abagail's story
Abagail's Story Hydrocephalus
Abigal's story

Abagail's Story Hydrocephalus

Every day is hydrocephalus awareness day for me - Abagail’s mom

xiomara teaser 2
Xiomara's Story Heart
xilomara and santa

Xiomara's Story Heart

When Xiomara's mother Elena was 20 weeks pregnant, her ultrasound uncovered something that didn’t look right. Elena was referred to Children’s National Health System to meet with Mary Donofrio, M.D., in the Fetal Heart Program who flagged a few potential heart issues and continued to monitor Xiomara throughout the remainder of the pregnancy.