The Fires in Los Angeles and Volunteering to Help
Our first guests today are John Goodwin, the President of Galaxy Press, and Carmen Bartolo, the multimedia PR Person for Galaxy Press. Today, John and Carmen discussed the fires in California that affected them and how they assisted others and helped in the recovery.
John and his wife, Emily, kept hearing fire engines coming closer and closer to them. They went upstairs to the roof, which was surreal, like one of those Hollywood movies. So, they all got hoses and buckets and immediately started hosing down everything, including the trees and the sides of the buildings and anything flammable, to ensure that something did not fly over and start another fire. And they saved their property.
Carmen discussed how they gathered the volunteer Ministers group and assisted the people with cleanup, helping the fire department get things under control and feeding those affected by the fires. This effort included about 70 volunteers to help that weekend. For information, go to the Galaxy Press website.
January is Birth Defects Awareness Month
Our second guest is Scott Adzick, M.D. Surgeon-In-Chief at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Dr. Adzick is a fetal surgeon specializing in treating these babies’ unique needs. Dr. Adzick will discuss advancements in treating birth defects and how fetal surgery can help save and better the lives of many children worldwide. Of approximately 5,000 fetal surgeries done worldwide to treat these birth defects, a quarter of them has been performed at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), one of the top-ranked and largest children’s hospitals in the U.S. Each week at CHOP, highly sophisticated fetal surgery teams repair birth defects in the womb, place fetal shunts to treat life-threatening congenital conditions, or perform minimally invasive procedures in the mother’s uterus.
The hospital’s fetal center, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, has cared for expectant mothers from all 50 states and more than 70 countries who are carrying babies with known birth defects. It is the largest program and one of the oldest of its kind in the world. The Center staff has also managed thousands of pregnancies complicated by birth defects like congenital heart disease in which newborns need immediate specialized medical care or surgery after delivery.
Dr. Scott Adzick is the Surgeon-in-Chief at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and is the director of the Hospital’s Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment, the largest and most comprehensive fetal program in the world, having welcomed expectant mothers from all 50 states and more than 70 countries. An innovator in fetal medicine since the field’s inception, Dr. Adzick has dedicated his career to the pursuit of groundbreaking prenatal treatment for birth defects, has made pioneering contributions to fetal surgery, and today continues to explore cutting-edge treatment options. Since 1995, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has performed over 2,000 fetal surgeries on babies with prenatally diagnosed birth defects. For more information, please visit: fetalsurgery.chop.edu