Patient Stories

We first became involved with University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital 12 years ago when we learned our then-2-year-old son was born with scoliosis.

Elaina Cox entered the world during a pandemic, and her first battle was with cancer. But her mother, Melanie, knows that Elaina is “strong like the many strong women before her in this family” and has the right team fighting alongside her. Here’s Melanie’s story about how the staff at University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital is providing the care and comfort necessary to make the whole experience a little less scary for the Cox family.

Bella Burkett spent the first four months of her life in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Born on New Year’s Eve with Left Sided Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH), Bella’s immune system was weakened and she faced many hurdles, including sepsis and multiple instances of collapsed lungs.

Aimee Buol felt safe and confident when her daughter Cate, 3, needed emergency heart care from UI pediatric cardiologist Ian Law, MD, during the pandemic.

Mandy Griffith of North Liberty, Iowa, had to make “nerve-racking, gut-wrenching” decisions about her daughter AJ’s care during the pandemic.

Craniosynostosis is a birth defect in which one or more of the seven fibrous joints in a baby’s skull—called sutures—is prematurely closed. This limits the space needed for brain and skull growth and often leads to craniofacial malformations

Born at 24 weeks gestation at 1 pound, our daughter Molly was diagnosed with intractable epilepsy when she was 2 1/2 years old.

"At my 12-week ultrasound my local doctors discovered our unborn son had fetal tachycardia, an abnormal increase in heart rate. Our son’s fetal tachycardia is very uncommon."—Mother, Whitney Goodsell

"The babies and I were being monitored by high-risk obstetricians at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics when their umbilical cords began to tangle, requiring an emergency C-section."

"After learning that our unborn child would need to undergo three open-heart surgeries, we were devastated."