Scarlett's parents were told to plan her funeral; they took her to Manning Family Children's instead. Here's how you can help the 500,000+ patients treated there annually.

Three years ago, John and Brenna Wood received the worst news any parents could have to face: Doctors told them nothing more could be done for their daughter, Scarlett; they planned to cease her treatment and place her on palliative care.

But they weren’t ready to accept that outcome. So, instead of pulling her off life support, the Woods took her to Manning's Family Children’s Hospital.

On Wednesday, December 3rd, WWL broadcast live for 14 hours from Manning Family Children's Hospital for the 5th Annual Light Up the Season Radiothon, in partnership with the Ray and Jessica Brandt Foundation, Trane South, and Kia of Covington, to raise funds for the 500,000+ patients they treat throughout the Gulf South every year.

At the bottom of the 10 O’Clock hour, John Wood sat down with Newell Normand and Dave Cohen to tell listeners about Scarlett’s story.

“In June of 2022, she produced shiga toxin E. Coli, causing her kidneys to shut down, and she developed HUS (Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome),” Wood explains. “We were at a different hospital, and she coded… They had to resuscitate her: 2 hours and 36 minutes of CPR, 42 doses of epinephrine. They put her on echo life support.”

Scarlett remained on dialysis for 28 days. During this time, doctors at her current hospital told the Woods there was nothing else they could do.

“We weren’t ready to give up on Scarlett. We asked, where can we go?” says Wood. “They said the only hospital that can take you is Manning Family Children's."

As John Wood spoke, the now-4-year-old-Scarlett sat nearby with a coloring book, so focused on staying in the lines that she failed to notice that the entire atrium of onlookers was watching her, fighting back tears.

“They gave her a chance, really,” her dad explains. “They took us up the back entrance straight to the 6th floor, to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). I vividly remember the elevator doors opening, and it was like the sun hit us for the first time; you see how bright it is in here in this atrium, it's the same way in the PICU, the sun was hitting us.”

After caring for Scarlett immediately upon arrival, that night, Manning Children’s staff put the family in a room in the back of the PICU.

“It was quiet. We weren't hearing all the machines beeping. And that was the first time in 28 days Scarlett actually slept. She slept for 3 days,” he explains.

Wood explains that, being on dialysis, Scarlett hadn’t urinated for 28 days, a sign that her kidneys still weren’t functioning.

“They were getting ready to set her up for dialysis again here. And we had to reposition her. That’s when my wife saw a blue line on her diaper. She peed for the first time in a month. From then on, she never needed another minute of dialysis,” Wood says.

But despite being taken off dialysis, Scarlett’s journey was a long way from over.

John explains, “She has chronic kidney disease and anoxic brain injury. During the CPR, she went about a total of 3 minutes without air. We were told she would never walk. Never talk. Zero quality of life.”

But during inpatient rehab, Scarlett began to progress. She met the goals her doctors set for her, then exceeded them. Finally, her doctors asked John and Brenna about the goals they wished to see for Scarlett.

“We would love to see her walk out the front doors,” Wood remembers telling them. “At the time, she wasn't walking yet. She was paralyzed. Her left side was paralyzed for about 50 days. On day 75, she walked right out those front doors right there, to a whole atrium of full people and staff clapping and cheering for her.”

Scarlett eventually made her way over to the radio booth to climb into her dad’s lap. When asked by Dave Cohen if she considers herself a miracle, she shyly shakes her head no.

“She's a miracle 100 times over,” her father concluded. “We owe everything to this hospital,”

Normalcy is easy to take for granted. But it’s something that families like the Woods are stripped of the moment a child falls prey to a life-threatening injury or disease. And from that moment on, recovering normalcy seems impossible.

However, the stories told at Radiothon provide a glimpse into how the staff of Manning Family Children’s Hospital don’t just treat their patients. They deliver a depth of care that enables patients and their families, as much as possible, to live a normal life, even while living under the most abnormal, painful, and grueling circumstances.

Manning Family Children’s is, firstly, a world-class, nationally recognized medical institution, and has received the honor of being named the top pediatric hospital in Louisiana five years in a row. It offers unmatched medical care, one example of this being its sickle cell gene therapy. Mannings is the only pediatric hospital with a functional cure to sickle cell disease in the state of Louisiana. The very first patient is undergoing that treatment right now.

But the stories behind the patients and their families reveal Manning Children’s to be much more than a hospital: Here, the emotional and mental needs of every patient matter just as much as their physical needs.

Almost every patient that interviewed with WWL could rattle off a list of their favorite nurses or doctors without hesitation; many of them were sitting right beside them, alongside their families and loved ones.

“I thought my life was over,” says Ava Sallier, a 17-year-old epilepsy patient. “I was doing gymnastics. I was thriving. I was in America’s top 100 for vault. But when I had that first seizure, I thought life would stop.”

“This place really means a lot to me because it made the person I am today. Back then, I was 13, I didn’t think I would do the things I’m doing right now,” Ava explains. “I was scared. I was discouraged. I had never experienced anything like this. But with my amazing neurologist, Dr. Miller, she was right there with me, comforting me. She told me as long as I took my medication, live a healthy life, practice dieting, and get enough rest, I can do more.”

After 4 years of treatment, Ava is on track to graduate from Ursulines and has received an offer from Loyola University to run track. There, she plans on majoring in psychology to become a neurologist.

“I want to connect to the kids ot make them feel like they're not alone. I want them to experience the same thing I experienced. I want them to know they can do more. And that if you live a healthy life, the sky is the limit.

As listeners soaked in the heartfelt stories, testimonies, and donation announcements throughout the day, a common refrain echoed across the airwaves: “Not a single family that walks through the doors has to worry about payment. No kid is turned away.”

“Every dollar stays right here. We say yes to every child, every time, regardless of a family's ability to pay. We can’t do that without the support of our community and your listeners,” Manning Children’s CEO Lou Fragosa tells Bobby Hebert. “We’re the only hospital that cares for kids from every parish, all 64 parishes, Mississippi, Alabama, and the panhandle of Louisiana.”

The only freestanding, comprehensive pediatric medical center in Louisiana turned 70 this year. And they plan to continue that very same no-barrier-to-entry service as they always have.

This care hinges on donations. And there’s still time to donate to the Light Up the Season Radiothon fund. Every cent goes back into the hospitals that provide life-giving care to the 500,000+ patients that walk through the doors each year.

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Donate Online: https://donate.mygift4kids.org/#/donor/y/2874/104/992