Small Chemical Spill at Children's Hospital Contained

A quart of acetic acid spills on lab floor prompts a hazardous materials response for clean up, with no injuries and no evacuations.

Cancer Patient, 4, Meets Justin Bieber

Hailey Roser, 4, of Mukwonago, was allowed to leave the hospital despite the lockdown.

Updated, 5:05 p.m. Sunday: Hailey Roser, 4, has met Justin Bieber. Despite Children's Hospital being on lockdown because of the Brookfield mass shooting, she was allowed to leave the hospital and she met Bieber Sunday afternoon. "Dreams come true," tweeted her family from the account @HealingHailey. A Waukesha Patch Twitter follower told Patch that Hailey's ambulance arrived in Milwaukee for Bieber's concert. "I am here with my daughters and the ambo with Hailey got here about 15 min ago," tweeted @brianokeefemke. A social media campaign was launched last week to encourage Bieber to meet the 4-year-old girl, who is hospitalized in Wauwatosa. A local radio station had provided Hailey with tickets for a meet-and-greet show, according to the …

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Girl Who Stole Wauwatosa's Heart Passes Away

Kaylen Birk, 6, was given just the faintest hope of surviving a rare brain stem tumor. She did not, but in her struggle to live she touched the lives of a community and leaves it closer-knit.

Kaylen Birk was a gamer, a fighter, a little more than a bit stubborn and a lot loving and caring. She was not inclined to let anything stop her from going to school and being with her friends as long as she possibly could – not even a disease that, in the end, could not be cured. Kaylen kept going to school until the day before she passed away. She died Saturday, less than a week before she would have turned 7. The plight of Kaylen and her family gave rise to an overwhelming show of support and assistance that filled and then and spilled over from the Lincoln Elementary School community to involve hundreds more people in Wauwatosa. Lincoln will have a all-school birthday party for Kaylen on Thursday, with cake for everyone and a release …

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Researchers Land $1.6 Million Grant to Study Ear Infections, Hearing Loss

Five-year funding will help Medical College and Children's Hospital team explore new treatments for ear infections that are a common cause of hearing loss in young children.

Ear infections are a common childhood episode, painful for the patient and worrisome for parents. But most people don't realize how damaging they can be for some young people, leading to permanent hearing loss. The Medical College of Wisconsin and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin Research Institute in Wauwatosa have received a five-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study will investigate ear infections and explore potential new treatments. The grant comes through the NIH's National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. The principal investigator for the grant study will be Joseph E. Kerschner, professor of otolaryngology and communication sciences, dean of the medical school and executive…

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Children's Hospital Patients, Families to Get Their Own Fair

Even some animals, along with popular acts and food, will come to Wauwatosa hospital to entertain those who can't go to the fairgrounds.

Thanks to a donation from Kohl’s Cares, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin patients and their families will enjoy a special “Fair Day” of their own at the hospital during this year’s Wisconsin State Fair. To entertain those who can't make a trip to the fairgrounds, State Fair representatives will come to Wauwatosa, bringing Richelle Kastenson, Wisconsin Fairest of the Fairs, and three popular Fair entertainers. And young patients won't even have to miss out on Fair animals. The fun will be held in the main lobby of the hospital from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Aug. 9. The acts include Project Dynamite, a musical/novelty act; Sean Emory, a juggling comedian; and T. Texas Terry, a comedic cowboy. Richelle will also be handing out “I’m a Blue Ribbon Kid” …

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Family Hopes DNA Sequencing Can Solve Medical Mystery

Two Pewaukee brothers have the same unique and debilitating genetic condition; the family is undergoing DNA sequencing at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa to try to identify their disease and search for tr

Mindy Brayman of Pewaukee was already pregnant with her second child when her son Jack, who was less than a year old, started to worry her. He wasn’t hitting his milestones; he wasn’t crawling, walking or vocalizing like a normal baby-turning-toddler should be. She and her husband, Scott, took Jack to the pediatrician. That was the first trip of dozens of visits to various specialists, and nine years later, doctors are still trying to diagnose exactly what is wrong not only with Jack, but also with Todd, his 8-year-old brother. The boys are more than brothers. The one-year age gap makes them best friends who share nearly everything, including a disease that affects everything in their lives. “They have pretty global delays,” Mindy said. “…

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'NOVA' to Feature Advanced Genetics Research at Medical College, Children’s Hospital

The PBS science series focuses on efforts begun here to use sequencing of up to the whole genetic code of a patient to develop treatments for debilitating and life-threatening conditions that other methods cannot explain.

The world’s first clinical genetics DNA sequencing program, housed at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, will be featured in a new episode of “NOVA” produced by PBS. The presentation airs at 8 p.m. Wednesday on Milwaukee Public Television (Channel 10). The program explores how researchers, using techniques developed here, are examining patients' entire genetic codes to get at the causes of diseases that no other medical technologies can explain. The whole-genome sequencing program was launched in late 2010 by a collaborative team of scientists and physicians at the Medical College and Children’s Hospital. The team’s first success, in which a Monona boy had a large part of his DNA sequenced, …

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Flight for Life Nears Another Milestone for Safety, Service

Air medical transport service hasn't had an accident in its 27 years.

There is a practice at St. Jude the Apostle School in Wauwatosa, which is near the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center. Whenever anyone hears the distinctive sound of a low-flying, twin-turbine helicopter approaching, lessons stop, and students and faculty alike bow their heads and pray. Their prayers go to the person being carried by a Flight for Life aircraft to Froedtert or Children's hospitals, because they know that anyone on such a flight is critically ill or injured. But they also give a thought to the air and medical crew onboard. For 27 years, Flight for Life has been providing emergency medical transport services to the Medical Center and other regional hospitals. The service will likely mark a milestone this month: It is within a …

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