All Patient Stories

Catch up with Yordanis DelaCruz, profiled in the second season of The Frontline for Hope. The 3-year-old boy lives more than 1,800 miles away from St. Louis, in the Dominican Republic. In his tiny village, he accidentally drank a substance in a soda can, which he thought was soda. It turns out, the can was filled with toxic cleaning chemicals that burned his throat and esophagus. The damage was so extensive, Yordanis could no longer use his esophagus to eat or speak, and he needed a tube in his neck, or a tracheotomy, to breathe.

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We first met Grace while she was receiving chemotherapy for a form of childhood cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma during season 2 of The Frontline for Hope, a TV docuseries highlighting the patients, families and staff of St. Louis Children's Hospital. We are so happy to report that Grace has finished her treatment. She celebrated by ringing the ceremonial bell in our oncology department.

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The Kaelin family awaits a heart transplant for their daughter, Anna, a little girl who was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy. They share their experience awaiting a heart transplant in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) at St. Louis Children' Hospital.

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Six-year-old Dawson has Mobius Syndrome, which causes facial paralysis. That means he has never had the ability to smile...until now. Dr. Alison Snyder-Warwick is a Washington University pediatric plastic surgeon at St. Louis Children's Hospital. She specializes in facial reanimation surgery. The Plastic Surgery specialty at St. Louis Children's Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine is one of only a handful of centers in the country that focuses on this specialized procedure.

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Baby Josiah has a rare condition called gnathodiaphyseal dysplasia. It causes extra bone growth in his skull and jawbone, and causes the rest of the bones in his body to be extremely brittle. He has undergone several facial reconstructions at St. Louis Children's Hospital with Dr. Albert Woo, director of the craniofacial institute at St. Louis Children's Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

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