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On Saturday, December 11th, the Arkansas Children's Hospital Auxiliary and Arkansas Children's Hospital Foundation will be throwing their 2010 Miracle Ball in Children's Hall on the Arkansas Children's Hospital campus. Local based business Advanced Tissue will be one of the sponsors and CEO Kevin Lamb and his wife Sharon have been asked to co-chair the event. With the goal of raising over $400,000, the evening will be filled with guest supporters such as actor Stephen Baldwin, Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe and his wife Ginger, and Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and his wife Bobbi. The evening will include dinner as well as a silent and live auction with items such as an Alaskan Cruise, trip to Milan, priceless jewels and much more going up for bid.
The ball for Kevin and Sharon is not only a passion to help children, but for their family it is very personal. Their involvement with ACH began with their son Cory and most recently it has extended to our first grandchild, Parker. Cory was eight weeks premature and had lung issues, which is not unusual with premature babies. Since our first child was born with no medical issues, we were caught off guard with the medical challenges facing Cory. Soon after his birth, a representative of Arkansas Children's Hospital came to our room to explain a study they were participating in. Several leading teaching hospitals from around the country were working together to measure the effectiveness of early childhood intervention in the life of a premature baby.
Once they were a part of the study, a representative of the hospital would come to their house and pick Cory up each morning and take him to the ACH-run daycare, where they could monitor his development. Each afternoon they would bring him home. Although we were a very small part of this national study, we believe the opportunity we were given was incredibly important in Cory's early development. Now, Cory is a happy and healthy young adult. Parker was born with Hyper Plastic Left Heart, a condition where the left side of his heart did not develop properly during pregnancy. Up to a few years ago, this condition was virtually un-survivable. The day after Parker's birth his pediatrician identified an irregular heartbeat and felt it important to transport him to ACH for evaluation. Almost immediately, he was diagnosed with this condition. The only possible solution was a new type of surgery to begin a corrective process. Lucky for us, ACH had a leading Cardio Vascular surgeon specializing in this surgery. Today Parker is 3 and they are preparing for his third and hopefully last surgery that will enable him to function with as close to a normal heart as possible.
In addition, regardless of the family's financial situation, all children are welcome and served. Also, because it is a teaching hospital, many of the pediatricians that come to ACH for training stay in our state. Arkansas Children's Hospital is one of the premier pediatric hospitals in the world. For more information or to be involved in helping the hospital please visit http://www.archildrens.org/. For more information on Advanced Tissue visit www.advtis.com.
