Tana - MULITPLE ILLNESSES | Making every moment count

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About Tana:

Born: 1996

Diagnosis:

Spina bifida, central hypo ventilation, Arnold Chiari malformation, trached, MRSA

Challenge:

Preventing illness, which for Tana, can become life-threatening.

Solution:

Partnering with other health care professionals, PHS' multidisciplinary team has helped Tana's family keep her at home—even through extended periods of critical illnesses when most kids would have had to be hospitalized.

Result:

Expected to live to age five, Tana is almost 13 and enjoys a quality of life that includes living at home with her family, going to school, traveling to the cabin on weekends, and even taking trips to Mexico and Disney World.

"I'm a mom, a nurse and I work for PHS. I know what parents are going through and I say this from my heart: this is a company that truly brings the child home, keeps the child home, and takes care of the family in a way that allows us to live a normal life." -Jill Wall, Tana's mom, PHS client and PHS nurse

Multiple challenges

Born with spina bifida, Tana spent her first four months in a neonatal intensive care unit. Also diagnosed with a brain malformation, breathing disorder and MRSA—commonly known as a "super bug” because it's so hard to treat, she has suffered multiple illnesses, some of them life-threatening.

Weathering storms—a team solution

Working as a team, PHS staff, her family and Tana's other providers and caregivers make it possible to keep her at home and make fewer trips to the hospital—sometimes even when she is seriously ill.

Living every moment

Tana has not only exceeded expectations she would live to age five, she enjoys a remarkable quality of life. Although she is wheelchair-bound, doesn't speak and is fed through tubes, she goes to school, takes weekend trips to the cabin, swims, tubes, and goes four-wheeling. She has even taken family trips to Mexico and Disney World. People who get to know Tana, says mom Jill, look beyond all the equipment and see her for who she really is: "a girl who is full of joy, loves life, and doesn't let a moment pass her by."

Download Tana's full case study PDF (0.9 MB PDF)