September 27, 2010
Sienna Wood is a true champion.
The four-year-old Calgary girl had 29 surgeries on her brain before she was two years old.
Thanks largely to the pediatric neurosurgery team at Alberta Children’s Hospital, Sienna is now a happy, smiling and bubbly little girl.
Her rare condition resulted in a large arachnoid cyst that covered the left side of her brain, as well as a resulting severe hyrocephalus (water on the brain). The team of surgeons performed a nine-hour surgery on Sienna, creating a one-of-a-kind special shunt that stabilized the pressure in the cyst and drained the build-up of fluid on her brain.
“Sienna’s case was extremely rare and challenging,” says Dr. Mark Hamilton, who performed most of Sienna’s surgeries. “This was a great example of how we had to customize something just for her in order to save her life.”
Community support through the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation helped fund the equipment needed to save Sienna. On Sept. 24, the foundation named Sienna the hospital’s 2010/11 Children’s Miracle Network Champion Child.
“Sienna was chosen because she has shown courage and strength and given us hope, which is what this hospital is all about,” says Justine Clay, manager for community engagement at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation.
For the next 12 months, Sienna and mom Brenda and dad Steve will be ambassadors for the hospital and Children’s Miracle Network, appearing at events across North America to promote the work of staff such as Hamilton and his team.
"We are delighted that Sienna is our official ambassador this year," says Saifa Koonar, president and chief executive officer of the Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation. "Sienna’s story is the perfect example of how caregivers at the Alberta Children’s Hospital rely on community support to save and improve the quality of our kids’ lives everyday."
Sienna is one of 80,000 children cared for by specialists at the Alberta Children's Hospital each year.
The Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation raises funds for excellence in child health and family centred care. Through the generosity of donors, the foundation provides funding for innovative family centred programs, state of the art equipment, advanced medical training and internationally recognized pediatric research.
Children's Miracle Network is a non-profit organization helping kids by raising funds for 170 children’s hospitals across North America. In Canada, Children's Miracle Network raises funds for 14 children’s hospitals, and has raised more than $250 million since its inception.
