Pediatric Patient Stories
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Burn survivor resumes life as an active teenager
Mar 2nd, 2017
Tyrone Crawford Jr. loves sports. Coming from an athletic family, the Tallahassee teenager played his first football game at age 6. It was a passion that would continue through his […]

Family travels from Russia to UF for baby’s lifesaving surgery
Sep 18th, 2012
David Kays, M.D., a pediatric surgeon at UF&Shands, the University of Florida Academic Health Center, treated Russian mom Elena Akmanova’s newborn, Eva, after the baby was diagnosed with congenital diaphragmatic […]

Another chance for Olivia
Aug 15th, 2012
Watching a Barney DVD in her bed, Olivia Salinas looks like a typical preschooler, except for the tracheostomy tube in her neck. But the 3-year-old girl from Tampa made history […]

Breathing Free Again
Jan 13th, 2012
It was a week of firsts for 8-year-old Brian Stanzione — first plane ride, first stay in a hotel and first visit to Florida. But Brian was not flying from […]

A risky journey and a happy ending
Oct 3rd, 2011
Mandie and Robert Cokley and their son Patrick piled into their Lincoln Navigator on April 15 and began the 2,400-mile drive from their home in Bakersfield, Calif. to Gainesville. The […]

Growing up
Aug 20th, 2011
Underneath Jim Beau Reinhardt’s left lung, a synthetic patch stitched into place is helping him breathe. Jim Beau, who will turn 2 in November, was diagnosed with a congenital diaphragmatic […]