Newborn Screening Gets a Boost in North Carolina

By Nicole McEwen

On May 30, North Carolina leaders announced the expansion of the state’s newborn screening panel to include three rare diseases — Pompe disease, Mucopolysaccharidosis type 1 (MPS 1) and X-linked Adrenoleukodystropy (X-ALD). These same leaders are also committed to improving the process for adding conditions to the program in the future. Because of my role with Taylor’s Tale, I had an opportunity to attend the press conference in Raleigh. Here’s my take on the news as well as the importance of newborn screening programs.

Why is newborn screening important? 

Soon after birth, babies are screened for different diseases to ensure that, if needed, they receive early treatment and the best possible quality of life. This, in turn, saves families from much heartache and potentially a huge financial burden.

I graduated from the University of Georgia in May after spending my senior year as a Child Life Specialist intern at the Children’s Hospital of Georgia, where I worked with children and families in a hospital setting. This means I saw, firsthand, the difference this bill will make for babies born in North Carolina.

Imagine a family having to sacrifice their first child to a rare disease in order to understand what’s wrong so that their future children can be tested and treated for that same disease. It sounds awful, but it’s a painful reality: many parents have multiple children born with a particular rare disease, and they are forced to watch one (or sometimes more than one) son or daughter suffer while younger children receive treatment and live a longer, healthier life.

Imagine being a parent in that situation and knowing the medical community could have done something to help your child, if your child had only been screened for the disease early. To boot, the financial burden of your oldest child’s condition could become long and protracted if they need more advanced treatment as their condition declines and the damage becomes irreversible.

Imagine knowing that all of it could have been easily avoided and changed.

That’s where newborn screening comes into play.

With this move, fewer children and families in North Carolina will suffer from lack of early and appropriate treatment. Families will have more time to get to know each other, do meaningful activities together and watch their children grow, so they can make meaningful contributions to a society that allowed them to live.

Everyone stands to benefit here: the child, the family, our healthcare system and our society.

How did the press conference in North Carolina unfold?

We arrived at the state capitol and headed into a room inside the legislative building, where white coats packed into one side of the room and patients and families filled the other. The middle of the room was reserved for press. I stood with Sharon King, Taylor’s Tale president and Taylor’s mother, and Judy Mayer, a Taylor’s Tale board member, to watch the morning unfold.

Sharon King at press conference

Legislators spoke about newborn screening and their excitement for the addition of these three conditions. This is a happy day, they said — for children, for families and for the state of North Carolina. It doesn’t just affect our state, they said. It will set a new precedent for the way we treat newborns and hopefully create a ripple effect across other states. Another mother of a child with a rare disease also came to the podium to share her experience. While her child received treatment, this mother stressed that it would have been much better if it had happened even a few months earlier.

Despite the excitement around the news, it isn’t without detractors. For example, some members of the media questioned the cost of adding conditions to the newborn screening panel. Wouldn’t this raise the price tag of newborn screening for mothers? Wouldn’t additional screenings require more expensive equipment? What would taxpayers think? How many babies do some of these diseases really affect? What are the numbers? Is it worth it?

This is where I believe it’s important to focus on the big picture. After all, many rare diseases are chronic illnesses that cost a lot of money to treat over the long haul in addition to causing a great deal of pain and suffering for patients and families. Catching these diseases early, so that patients can receive meaningful treatment, is far less costly than dealing with the diseases later. Remember, too, that rare diseases as a whole are far from rare. In fact, in North Carolina alone there are approximately one million rare disease patients.

I look forward to watching this crucial work move forward and feel lucky to have witnessed such a big day. However, I know there we still have a lot to do in order to help the public comprehend and see the big picture. The press conference was a crash course in rare disease advocacy, and more than ever, I understand why we can’t ever give up the fight. I look forward to sharing more from my experiences this summer and hope you’ll join Taylor’s Tale, and me, for the ride.


How Taylor Inspired Me to Become a Child Life Specialist

By Nicole McEwen

I’m a recent graduate of the University of Georgia, and I’m excited to intern for Taylor’s Tale this summer. But why am I working for this incredible organization?

For starters, I’ve known Taylor’s incredible family for about five years (I know, I’m quite lucky!). We met through a Charlotte non-profit organization called Playing for Others (PFO). PFO encourages teens to ask themselves two questions: “Who am I, and how will I give of that?” As a member, I explored and developed my own leadership skills through the arts.

But the buddy program, where teens get paired with a person with a disability, was my favorite part of PFO. During my senior year of high school, I had the honor and pleasure of being paired with Taylor.

Throughout that year, I spent time with Taylor and her immediate family. I was amazed that each of them was so strong, driven and passionate. I had never met a group so willing to be courageous and so unwilling to take “no” for an answer. And, I knew I wanted to keep them in my life well after the buddy program ended.

When I was researching colleges, Mrs. King asked me what I wanted to study. I had always liked working with kids, and my three years in PFO showed me that I enjoyed working with people with disabilities as well. However, I didn’t like working with big groups of kids at the same time (ruling out teaching), and I didn’t want to be in charge of kids’ lives (ruling out careers in the medical profession). Mrs. King mentioned that their family worked closely with people called Child Life Specialists whenever Taylor was hospitalized. I had never heard of a Child Life Specialist, so I went home and pulled out my computer to put a Google on it.

Child Life has many parts, and the job changes by day and even depending on the specific floor where you work. But in general, Child Life Specialists (CLS) take care of the psychosocial needs of children and their families during a stressful time. They:

  • Create a sense of normalcy by providing familiar things to do to make the setting less stressful
  • Provide support during medical procedures
  • Guide therapeutic interventions to help children and families cope
  • Provide education in a developmentally appropriate way to help give patients and families control over their situation

 

Child Life? It seemed like everything I’d ever wanted. It would allow me to support children of all ability levels and their families in difficult situations and teach them about their disease or procedure. Most of all, it would allow me to play with kids and have fun doing it.

I chose the University of Georgia because they offer a program that sends four students to the Children’s Hospital of Georgia in Augusta during their senior year to intern as Child Life Specialists. The program gives these four students about three times the amount of clinical hours necessary for certification.

Luckily, I was accepted into the program and completed it this year, graduating in May. Along the way, I got to practice Child Life on six different hospital units. I saw and learned a lot about how hospitalization and different illnesses or diseases affect a child and their family system.

I also decided to apply for an online master’s degree in nonprofit management. I have always loved the non-profit mission and figured that if I ever get tired of hospital life, working in the non-profit setting would be a good way to continue working with my target population. Plus, some of the skills I’ll gain, such as management and grant writing, could help me in the Child Life world. I will start the online program through Northeastern University this fall.

In August, I will sit for my Child Life certification exam, after which I can begin working full-time as a Child Life Specialist. That means I’ll spend much of my summer studying.

But I wanted to do something meaningful with the rest of my time at home in Charlotte, and I’m so glad Taylor’s Tale invited me to become part of the team. This internship will be a great way for me to:

  • Give back to Taylor’s family for putting me on my life path that I love so much
  • Expand my nonprofit skills and knowledge before starting my master’s degree work
  • Continue to advocate for children and families, even if I’m not at their hospital bedside

 

The official start of summer is still weeks away, yet I’ve already jumped into many different pieces of Taylor’s Tale and the rare disease advocacy world. I look forward to being part of this amazing organization and population of humans. This may be my first post, but it certainly won’t be my last, and I hope you enjoy my perspective on the things I experience this summer.


Running for Taylor in 50 States: Georgia

By Laura King Edwards

When I crossed the finish line of Charlotte’s Thunder Road Half Marathon blindfolded in November 2013, I knew the race would be a tough act to follow. But I didn’t intend to stop running for my sister, Taylor, and our fight against Batten disease and other rare diseases. That’s why I’m running a race in all 50 states – a feat not as rare as running 13.1 miles blind but one that I hope will help me spread our story far and wide.

I signed up for the Athens Half Marathon a few days after returning to the mainland from Hawaii, where I ran the Kauai Half Marathon on Labor Day weekend. Just 200 miles from my home in Charlotte, the quaint college town with respectable media opportunities but without the commotion of Atlanta seemed like the perfect place to notch state number nine.

But that’s not why I chose it. continue reading →