Childrens Hospital

Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles and Orthopaedic Hospital have begun discussing a possible merger aimed at developing a center for pediatric surgery and orthopedics that would be internationally renowned. The two hospitals, among the top three providers of charitable health care in California, began exploratory talks early this year. The discussions were triggered in part by what officials say is Childrens Hospital's growing shortage of beds and the availability of space at Orthopaedic.

The Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh has an unofficial mayor: its longtime shoe shiner. For more than 30 years, Albert Lexie has roamed the hospital's halls, with a wide smile on his face and a tin of shoe wax in his hand. Lexie was coy about his age, but proud to point out he's spent almost every Tuesday and Thursday since 1981 at the hospital. He makes small talk, drops off small toys for the kids and offers $5 shoe shines. “He says I'm his best buddy,” Dr. Joseph Carcillo told the Los Angeles Times.

A Los Angeles jury Tuesday found in favor of Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles and two doctors in a $19-million civil lawsuit filed by a Tujunga man who said they had operated on his infant son without his consent. Eduardo Rivas, 43, sued in Los Angeles County Superior Court in June, alleging that doctors had operated on his 6-month-old son, Nathan, to repair a double hernia in 2007 after he had refused permission. After the surgery, Nathan, who was born four months premature and arrived at the hospital with a nasal breathing tube, became dependent on a ventilator and feeding tube, according to Rivas' Beverly Hills-based lawyer, Nathaniel Friedman.

Tiny 10-day-old Hunter Carrillo lay sedated on an elevated bed at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, hooked to a massive machine taking the place of his heart, lungs and kidneys. His parents, Tami and Joe, hovered nervously nearby. Every few minutes, Tami Carrillo carefully stepped around the tangle of cords and monitors to get a closer look at her newborn son and to briefly hold his fingers. For nearly a week, the Carrillos have watched as a team of doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, cardiologists and surgeons worked around-the-clock, helping Hunter recover from an infection that caused him to stop breathing and his heart to stop pumping.

Childrens Hospital has signed a $1.5-million lease for 10,505 square feet to become the first tenant in the 5000 Sunset Building. The hospital will use the space for radiology and physical therapy schools.

The Neil Bogart Memorial Fund has made a promise of $12 million to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles for cancer research, the largest single gift from a foundation that the hospital has received, officials said. On Monday, the hospital dedicated the Neil Bogart Pediatric Cancer Research Program, which will get $9 million of the gift over the next six years. The gift "is a beautiful commitment to us," said Ken Wildes, a hospital vice president.

It began with four beds and a handful of volunteers in a tiny Victorian cottage, but two wealthy mothers' unshakable concern for the ailing children of the poor ultimately transformed Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles into a world leader in pediatric medicine. The original facility's volunteers were members of the King's Daughters Day Nursery, a genteel group of turn-of-the-century ladies who were encouraged by a prominent local surgeon and horseman, Dr.

Mary Duque, the indefatigable altruist who helped raise more than $100 million for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, died Sunday night. She was believed to be 87. Michelle Barker, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said Mrs. Duque died in her sleep at her Hancock Park home. For more than 40 years--and at an average rate of nearly $3 million a year--Mrs. Duque raised money so crippled children could learn to walk again and sick children could return to their homes and classrooms.

Three children who received blood transfusions at Childrens Hospital of Orange County have been infected with the AIDS virus, the hospital's chief of infectious diseases said Tuesday. One of the three has developed early symptoms of the fatal disease, Dr. David J. Lang said. The three infected children were identified after a Red Cross investigation that backtracked the tainted blood from donors who were subsequently found to have acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Those who give of their time and worldly goods for children in need often do so from the heart. Two cases in point: H. Russell Smith, the just-retiring chairman of Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, and Mary Duque, president. Russell and Jeanne Smith recently endowed a chair in brain surgery in the name of their late grandson, Cameron Smith (son of Stewart and Patricia Smith of San Marino), who died last June at Childrens Hospital after a 10-year battle with cancer.

For all of his countless support during the past four years as a Laker, Pau Gasol will be honored with the "Courage to Care" award Oct. 20 at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles' gala titled "Noche de Ninos" at The Event Deck in L.A. Live. Gasol has appeared at Children's Hospital more than 10 times since joining the Lakers in 2008, and the visits went beyond photo opportunities. As a former medical student at the University of Barcelona, Gasol viewed three spinal surgeries, including one I caught on video this past summer.

They aren't laughing at Children's Hospital Los Angeles over the clown billboards and bus stop ads around town advertising "Childrens Hospital. " Administrators of the Sunset Boulevard hospital have issued a memo to staff members assuring them that the promotions for the weekly Adult Swim cable TV network's show of that name are not part of a hospital advertising campaign gone awry. The billboards depict a doctor in clown makeup who is more likely to yell at kids than cure them.

As Carolina Herrera explained her biomedical research on inflammatory bowel disease, her audience sat wide-eyed, listening intently while chomping on egg sandwiches. The feasibility of a drug that would heal ulcers in the colon is not typical conversation fodder for teenagers - let alone over breakfast. But the students in the room were budding scientists unfazed by the seemingly unappetizing topic. The 16 students are taking part in the Latino & African-American High School Internship Program - a rigorous science program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles aimed at encouraging minority students to pursue a career in science or medicine.

Rob Corddry, 41, a former correspondent on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," is cresting what he calls his busiest year ever. In addition to creating and starring in the edgy Adult Swim comedy "Childrens Hospital," which has just received its first Emmy nod as it embarks on a fourth season on Aug. 9, he also appears in a flurry of upcoming films. Let's start with "Childrens Hospital. " What inspired that? I've read that you had only seen a couple of medical series when you created it. Yeah, I was a big fan of "St. Elsewhere"growing up. That's about it. I used to watch "Grey's Anatomy"over my wife's shoulder when I was on the computer.

Pau Gasol leaned over. He gripped a picture frame with both of his hands. Then he just stared. In front of him stood a photo of the Lakers forward witnessing one of the three spinal surgeries he watched at Children's Hospital Los Angeles in the last two years. Along the margins of the picture were words written in cursive and calligraphy, all with the same simple message and followed by heart signs: "Thank you. " This is what Gasol meant when he stood moments earlier saying that his extensive work with the hospital "completes me as a human being.

Barbara Britt has a song in her head, a campfire tune that she learned years ago. I'm a little piece of tin. Its silliness, she knew, would keep her upbeat for the appointment she had with James Lee, the 12-year-old with a tumor in his brain stem. Nobody knows where I have been. James was one of nearly a dozen patients scheduled for today's clinic, and Britt, a nurse care manager at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, has found that songs keep her from becoming overwhelmed by the lives of her patients and their families.

Driving by, you might wonder if you've stumbled on a gathering of somewhat indiscreet spies. It's night, the parking lot of an otherwise deserted municipal park is filled with cars, each with at least two people inside carefully examining documents by flashlight, making notes and discussing strategy in subdued voices. One by one, they start their cars and drive away, all heading in the same direction.

Planning for a future subway station at Sunset Boulevard and Vermont Avenue has spawned a joint effort by county transit officials and Childrens Hospital Los Angeles to link Southern California's largest medical complex with the Metro Red Line. The joint-development proposal, currently described as being in a "conceptual" stage, would redevelop the entire block northeast of the intersection with offices, a hospital conference center, stores, restaurants and a parking garage.

Hundreds of nurses from Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital staged a one-day strike Thursday over failed contract negotiations and staffing issues. Equipped with bullhorns and whistles, the nurses stood by the main entrance of the hospitals on Patterson Street and Atlantic Avenue. Many waved picket signs that read: "If nurses are outside, something's wrong inside" and "Safe staffing at all times. " Amid the yelling and cheering for every car horn honk they got, the nurses sang out chants.

A transportation event began early Sunday morning that had been more than a year in the making, involving complex logistics, critical timing, hundreds of participants and precious cargo. It took place not on a Los Angeles freeway but in the corridors of Children's Hospital Los Angeles, where nearly 200 patients, from tiny newborns swaddled in color-coded blankets to teenagers, were carefully moved to a new $636-million facility that will utilize the most advanced technologies. More than 600 medical staff underwent months of intensive training and preparation, and the hospital set up a command center to monitor the progress of each patient being moved from the old hospital to the adjoining seven-story Marion & John E. Anderson Pavilion.