CINCINNATI —

If you're looking for a Christmas miracle, look no further than "Miracle Maddie."

Maddie Whipp is about to turn five months old and is also about to spend her first days at home with her family in West Virginia.

Whipp is the daughter of Kylen and Lacey Whipp. Shortly after Lacey became pregnant with Maddie in January, she experienced a rough battle with COVID-19 and other illnesses.

"You know, you get a positive pregnancy test, you find out you're having a little girl and then you start seeing all the bad things that can happen with it," Kylen Whipp said while sitting with his wife inside Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

The couple spoke exclusively with WLWT to share their story.

Whipp shared how Maddie's anatomy scan showed she had duodenal atresia, blockage in her small intestine and tested positive for Down Syndrome. Maddie was referred to Cincinnati Children's Hospital to see about surgery to repair her duodenal atresia. In that same timeframe, Maddie, still in utero, was found to have hydrops fetalis, which is where there is fluid retention in the body. Maddie's lungs were found to have collapsed due to fluid in her lungs. Her neonatal care team tried unsuccessfully to insert a shunt to drain her lungs.

Her hydrops fetalis continued to worsen and the Whipps were informed Maddie had a less than one percent chance to survive even if she survived delivery.

"Even that week, I had even arranged cemetery and funeral arrangements at that point, you know, in preparation," Kylen Whipp said. "And so, on Friday, our local high-risk care provider called my wife and said, 'I actually think your hydrops is improving based on the ultrasound. you should reconsider palliative care.'"

Maddie was born early on July 23rd without evidence of hydrops or needing major respiratory support.

"All we heard was. 'Happy birthday, baby girl!' And then we didn't see her. And they just took her out of the room. We didn't hear Maddie. We didn't get to see her. And it was just the worst feeling in the world," Whipp said.

At two days old, Maddie was flown from West Virginia to Cincinnati Children's Hospital for intestinal repair surgery, which led doctors to find more issues with her intestine, airway and heart. Doctors found "her stomach ended blindly without connecting to anything, her small intestines did not form, and what did form had multiple blockages."

"It's been a rollercoaster," Whipp said, tearing up with emotion. "Everything has just been so up and down, and little Maddie, you know, she's continued to be a miracle, which she proved everybody wrong and she's fought through everything."

It's easy to understand how she earned her nickname "Miracle Maddie" after spending nearly five months recovering from surgeries at Children's Hospital. Maddie can now take a bottle by herself and continues to gain weight.

"She does not have a tracheostomy," Kylen said. "And they were all pretty certain that she was going to need one. And so her heart issues, she's done well from that standpoint, hasn't needed any surgery. They're just kind of watching it. And so now we get to take our little girl home feeding her with the bottle and just very little oxygen support."

The Whipps learned their daughter could go home potentially months earlier than expected. The family went from funeral planning to being told she could go home with only minor respiratory support and a feeding tube if needed.

"There's a miracle," Lacey Whipp said in reference to her daughter's journey. "I just get emotional talking about it because it doesn't seem real. It doesn't seem real that we get to take our baby home. She's so strong, though. She's so strong and she's so hard."

"She's a rock star," Nataline Myers said. Myers is a Cincinnati Children's Hospital nurse practioner who tended to Maddie as soon as she arrived at the hospital. "Trisomy 21 babies are actually one of my favorite babies to take care of just because they exude such joy. And as they get older, all they do is they know no stranger. They know no evil. They always just exude love and happiness. And they just have the best smiles."

Myers said Maddie's survival and development truly stand out in her career. "And right now, Maddie's story is kind of at the top right now of wow, she's from not from the family's just like, you know, where we're going to be planning a funeral, too. Now we're taking our baby home. That's amazing. And then when you add the holidays and Christmas time, that just makes it even more special."

This year, Myers also started Cincinnati Children's Hospital's new "Snow Shop." The shop is made up of donated toys for NICU patients and siblings. Lacey Whipp took her older son, Grayson, to the Snow Shop to pick out toys for both of her kids.

"There's just something different about being in front of all these toys and being able to pick out a present for your child versus Amazon Prime," Lacey Whipp. "I'm not going to lie, but it was just something different about being able to walk in and pick out a present for your child, like in person and feel some sort of normalcy again."

In total, 80 families were served this year through the Snow Shop.

On Thursday, the Whipp Family was officially discharged from Cincinnati Children's Hospital and given the chance to drive home with Maddie to West Virginia in time for Christmas.

"It just doesn't seem real yet," Kylen Whipp said. "Like, I think, you know, maybe once we bring her home, it'll feel more real. But I just, I mean, this is the life that she's known. This is a life that we've known. We're excited to get her home and see what our new normal be, whatever that is."

CINCINNATI —

Cincinnati Children’s has been named One of America’s Most Innovative Companies by Fortune.

The hospital also ranks the highest of any children’s hospital in the nation.

“Cincinnati Children’s is a hub for medical innovation,” said Abram Gordon, vice president of Innovation Ventures, the hospital’s tech transfer and commercialization office. “We have a long history of creating, developing, or testing vaccines and medical devices and are forging ahead of the curve with new small molecule and organoid research. Each idea represents the experience and ingenuity of our employees.”

More than 17,300 people work at Cincinnati Children’s, and nearly one-third are engaged in research, hospital officials said in a release.

“Our innovators are developing breakthroughs in nearly every area of life sciences from therapeutics to medical devices and digital solutions – sometimes it’s a vaccine or a therapeutic to treat cancer, sometimes a medical device such as a neonatal MRI, or even using virtual reality to plan a cardiology procedure,” Gordon said. “Each idea matters and represents the potential to improve care or save lives.”

Of the 300 most innovative companies cited by Fortune for 2023, Cincinnati Children’s ranked No. 76.

At any given time, Cincinnati Children’s Innovation Ventures has about 500 projects in its pipeline, Gordon said.

The innovations are generated by scientific researchers and those on the front lines such as physicians and nurse practitioners, whose creative ideas often turn into improved care for patients of Cincinnati Children’s as well as kids throughout the world.

Highlights over the past 10 years at Cincinnati Children’s Innovation Ventures include:

• 1,774 new invention disclosures
• 1,885 patent applications filed
• 628 patents issued
• 230 licenses executed
• 15 active start-up companies
• 117 commercialized products/tools

Such innovations have helped create numerous jobs with spinout companies, other startups, and established firms that license Cincinnati Children’s technology.

CINCINNATI —

Imagine putting on a headset and being transported inside your body, getting to see what your surgeon will see and taking a look at the issue up close.

That's how Cincinnati Children's Hospital helped prepare one Wyoming, Ohio, boy for his open-heart surgery and it's changed his life in more ways than one.

Brayden Otten is no stranger to hospitals.

Eight hours after his birth his parents learned his heart wasn't normal.

"Sometimes it only forms a small ventricle on the left side of the heart or no ventricle at all. In Brayden's case it was small," his dad John Otten said.

From that moment, Brayden's life went down a different path.

It was on with several surgeries, but still full of fun, baseball, fishing and love from his furry family members.

"He's been really strong making sure he's as normal as any kid out there," said his dad.

Recently, Brayden's cardiologist noticed some changes and experts saw this as a chance to create a new future for him.

"Basically, do a revision of initial open-heart surgeries and create two ventricles where there used to be only one," Otten said.

They explained it to the 12-year-old in a language he knows well, gaming.

They took his video game talent and amplified it to put Brayden and his heart at the center, using virtual reality.

"It was amazing. We handed it to him. All of a sudden he put it on, knew exactly what to do and was in the space," said Director of Congenital Heart Surgery at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Dr. David Morales.

Morales took Brayden inside his heart.

Video showed him detailing every step of the procedure as Brayden explored the inner workings of his ticker.

"It breaks it down. It takes away all that technical jargon," said Brayden's mother Michelle Otten.

"Doctor Morales was saying, 'Ok, so this is where I'm gonna make this cut," she said.

Brayden was a natural in this virtual space.

"I thought it was pretty cool," he said.

It was a full-circle moment for Dr. Ryan Moore who has known Brayden since birth and is spearheading this technology.

"As someone who grew up with video games and is a gamer, it means a lot to me that I was talking to Brayden's parents, after that experience now he wants to become a doctor who develops games to help save kids," said Moore, Director of the Heart Inst. Digital Healthcare Innovation Group at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

Brayden's family said there was a noticeable shift in his confidence after the virtual reality experience.

No one really knew how long Brayden's recovery would take in the hospital.

Doctors thought maybe three to four weeks.

But Brayden was sent home around two weeks after his surgery and will be able to spend Christmas with his family.

HAMILTON — At just 10 years old, Naomi Short has gone up against a lot: a rare form of brain cancer, COVID-19 and now rehab. Still, she continues to push forward with joy.

Short was diagnosed with stage four pineoblastoma in 2019 when doctors found a series of tumors in her brain and spinal cord. She faced cancer head-on, looking at everything with a thankful heart.

"Guess what my nurse said? That I do better [in radiation] than most adults," Short said in 2019.

The Hamilton resident's personality shone through every step of the way. Multiple surgeries later, Short's brain is cancer-free. Doctors continue to watch her spine, and her mother Melissa said they have not seen any growth in past tests.

Short will stay at Cincinnati Children's for a month with the hope of rehabbing to walk again.

"One thing I'm so happy about is that I'm still here on this earth and I can be with my family — I'm having so much fun this year," Short said. "I'm getting ready to go back to the hospital for rehab."

Short's next MRI is scheduled for Dec. 1. Until then, her family said their focus is on celebrating the holiday season.

"Happy Thanksgiving everyone," Short said.

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CHEVIOT, Ohio — When Brittney Suedhof took her daughter to a Children’s Hospital clinic in February, the first set of doctors she saw tried to send her home. It was a fever, she recalled them telling her. Elliana had become more tired than usual, needed her diaper changed less often and lost interest in eating or playing, but all of her swabs were normal. She would recover.

“That wasn’t enough for me,” Suedhof said Wednesday.

Her decision to seek a second opinion at the main Children’s Hospital campus likely saved her daughter’s life that day. Multiple hours, X-rays and blood tests later, they had a diagnosis: Dilated cardiomyopathy. An enlarged heart. Elliana’s case was unusually severe.

“At 9:30 p.m., the doctor walked in and admitted us,” she said. “Said, ‘Your daughter’s heart is a 10 out of 10. We’ll admit her now. This is very life-threatening.’”

Suedhof said she had seen posts on Facebook about children with similar conditions, families fighting similar battles. Now she’s the one running a GoFundMe, scribbling down medical terms in a notebook and appealing to the kindness of strangers as her own family makes the long, slow climb toward what they hope will be a more permanent solution than Elliana’s toddler-sized VAD: A heart transplant.

The first months after the diagnosis were alright, Suedhof said. Elliana’s name went on a transplant recipient list, and the toddler herself went on a regimen of medications that she seemed to tolerate. She was herself again, according to her mother: “Very sassy, loving and caring.”

Things changed for the worse in April. By Wednesday, as Suedhof spoke to WCPO, Elliana had been “deactivated” as a potential heart recipient because of a kidney injury.

The family’s goal now is to get her back to her post-diagnosis normal and get her name back on the list. It’s hard, her mother said.

“There’s so much that we have to prevent before we have to get a heart transplant that we’re just like, ‘Can we do this?’” Suedhof said. “‘Can we make it? We can make it. Let’s do this.’”

Sweet, sassy Elliana is also exhausted with being in cardiac intensive care unit, she added. Suedhof, who works part-time, tries to spend every possible moment there with her — but she can’t afford to do that without financial help. She also has another child to care for.

So, for now, she lives on hope, alternates between home and the hospital, and keeps writing in her notebook.

“This notebook is my dictionary,” she said. “Like my memory log. Anything I need to know is in this notebook.”

She hopes the help her family needs is out there in the world.

“My baby looks so thriving on the outside,” Suedhof said of Elliana. “The inside is just trying to make it. Trying to make it.”

The family will celebrate Elliana's second birthday Aug. 7

Anyone who would like to donate to the family can do so via Suedhof's GoFundMe.

CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Children's Hospital opened a new emergency department and urgent care facility on the main campus in Avondale Saturday morning.

The facility is located in the New Critical Care Building, also known as Location G.

The emergency department encompasses 90,000 square feet, making it triple the size of the previous facility.

Staff with the hospital said the size allows the hospital to more safely care for patients, enables convenient access to essential medical services and includes state-of-the-art mental health treatment rooms.

In addition, the new facility also uses imaging services so pediatric patients can receive MRIs, X-rays, CT scans or ultrasounds without the need to travel to a separate building.

Staff said patients and families receiving care at the emergency department and urgent care will be able to fill medications at the on-site 24-hour pharmacy.

“We heard from our patients and families early on in the design process about how we can improve upon their experience when coming to the Emergency Department, and we incorporated their feedback,” said Steve Davis, MD, chief operating officer at Cincinnati Children’s. “By having imaging, pharmacy and labs at one location, patients can get everything done in our new Emergency Department and not have to go elsewhere in the hospital. This new location offers great care alongside great convenience.”

According to staff, the Cincinnati Children's main campus has more than 100,000 annual visits to the emergency department and urgent care, making it one of the busiest hospitals in the nation.

Staff said their pediatric emergency services teams care for children and teens with a broad range of illnesses and injuries — simple medical emergencies to complex trauma cases that include car crashes and brain injuries. Staff said the facility also cares for the ever-increasing number of youths experiencing a mental health crisis.

Patients with behavior or mental health concerns can now receive care in one of 12 new treatment rooms dedicated to their specialized needs, according to staff.

Staff said the emergency department will also feature:

• 60 treatment rooms, including five trauma bays
• A decontamination center
• A research lab
• Two trauma elevators with direct access to helipad and intensive care.

CINCINNATI —

A new, no-needle approach to COVID-19 vaccines is being tested by researchers who are hoping it acts like a virus watchdog in the area where COVID-19 attacks.

“It could be a very, very innovative and new type of vaccine. So, we’re really hopeful of how this could help us with the pandemic,” said Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Dr. Paul Spearman.

Spearman is leading the research on a vaccine known as CVXGA1.

The vaccine is delivered in a nasal spray, like some influenza vaccines.

Researchers believe the vaccine delivered in the nose will help the protection build there and in the upper respiratory system where COVID-19 first attacks and it may do that even better than the mRNA vaccines.

“They do generate some antibodies in the mucosal track, but we think this one has a potential to generate a lot more,” Spearman said. “The difference is, it will generate immunity, not just throughout the systemic circulation in the body but also in the mucosal areas of the nose.”

Like other nasal vaccines, the virus in the COVID-19 nasal version is also live.

Researchers believe this virus is safe because, while it hasn’t been directly tested on people, many have had contact with it.

“The Pi5 virus itself parainfluenza virus type 5 is part of the kennel cough vaccine that’s given to dogs and people get exposed to that. We know they do because that’s been evaluated and as far as we know, they’ve never had symptoms,” Spearman said.

Enrollment begins within a week or so.

Researchers need 15-20 people ages 18 to 75.

The need people who have not had a vaccine and have not had COVID.

Health departments across the Tri-State are warning that the number of COVID-19 cases in children is rising. Officials at the region’s largest pediatric hospital, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, said Wednesday the number of young patients admitted with complications due to the virus is also increasing weekly.

The spread is spilling into the broader healthcare community, doctors said. Outside a Hyde Park urgent care clinic, patients formed a line out the door Wednesday morning.

“We’re all waiting long, side by side, not feeling good,” said Seante Bullock, who was at the clinic.

Inside the clinic, all chairs appeared taken.

“They ran out of chairs,” Bullock said. “Everybody's waiting in the same air-space or outside. There's someone coughing almost next to me, and I’m just like freaking out.”

One of Cincinnati’s leading pediatric doctors, Dr. Patty Manning-Courtney, is chief of staff at Children’s Hospital. She joined Hamilton County Health Commissioner Greg Kesterman Wednesday to warn of this impact. Manning-Courtney traces it back to what she said is the rising number of children contracting the virus along with other respiratory illnesses spreading from children, families and neighbors.

“Our entire pediatric healthcare system is under stress and strain right now,” she said. “By that I mean: Our emergency rooms, our urgent cares, our primary care practices, our community physicians are seeing some of the highest volumes of patients that they have ever seen.”

Dr. Amy Mechley works at Integrated Family Care of Cincinnati in East Walnut Hills. She said her office is seeing the same.

“COVID cases now are getting younger and maybe a little bit more personal,” she said. “We’re seeing more people coming in asking questions. Our vaccine appointments are now getting full, which is great.”

Public health data show Hamilton County has had the most pediatric cases in the Tri-State since the pandemic began and has the third-highest number in the state of Ohio.

Manning-Courtney said there have been 500 children who tested positive in the last seven days who were not hospitalized. The week before that, 300 children tested positive. They also were not ill enough to be admitted to the hospital.

The number of patients in Children's Hospital due to COVID-19 has not been released because of child-parent privacy, she said.

Other counties across the viewing area said they are experiencing similar trends.

The Northern Kentucky Health Department breaks the number of active cases down by age. However, a spokesperson for St. Elizabeth Healthcare said no patients under 18 were admitted due to COVID-19 in that system's hospitals as of Wednesday evening.

The Butler County General Health District's promotion director, Erin Smiley, said doctors there have seen an increase in the number of childhood hospitalizations related to other respiratory infections — specifically, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections.

Ohio lists data for COVID-19 and children under the age of 19 here, and Indiana's dashboard breaks cases down by county, here.

Meanwhile, back in the Hyde Park clinic line, patients said they can feel the strain. Some question close quarters and level of patient care.

“It gives me anxiety a little bit,” said Bullock. “Most of these people, including myself, are getting COVID testing. So, if everybody has some type of symptoms, and we're all sitting around so close to each other, it kind of doesn’t make sense.”

CINCINNATI — Authorities are asking for the public's help locating 14-year-old Ja-Nialah Tolbert, who was last seen Monday morning around 6 a.m. at Children's Hospital.

She was taken from the hospital against doctor's orders and her condition is considered life-threatening.

Tolbert is 5-feet 3-inches tall and weights 177 poinds.

No information about who removed her from Children's Hospital or in which direction she was taken has been released at this time.

Anyone with information regarding the location of Ja-Nialah Tolbert should contact Hamilton County Dispatch at 513-825-2280.

A fourth vaccine is getting closer to a meeting with the FDA to ask for emergency approval as vaccine clinics expand and supplies of other vaccines remain tight.

AstraZenica is analyzing the date collected in the U.S. and will take their findings to the FDA soon.

“Within a month, maybe sooner than that,” said Dr. Robert Frenck.

Frenck is a researcher at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. He led the research here on the Pfizer vaccine and worked on AstraZenica study more recently.

“They have to do the analysis. They have to have enough cases to say what the efficacy was but, assuming there’s a positive there, they would be submitting the information to the FDA,” Frenck said.

AstraZenica said results from studies in the UK, Brazil and South Africa have shown its vaccine is 100 percent effective against severe cases and hospitalizations. Overall effectiveness is 82 percent after two doses.

The U.S. results have not been made public yet.

AstraZenica emerges as concerns about variants continue to grow.

“The good news is that the vaccines have shown good efficacy against the variants so far. The other thing is that these platforms, the AstraZenica, the Johnson and Johnson, as well as the MRNA vaccines are ones that can be tweaked, really very quickly,” Frenck said.

Backpacks, notebooks and pencils are standard back-to-school supplies, but families have another item to consider this year: a COVID-19 vaccine.

Believe it or not, most Tri-State school districts return to classes in a month or so, and that's about the same amount of time it takes for the two-shot vaccination regimens from Pfizer — the only vaccine authorized for use in people under 18 — to take full effect. That's why some health officials are reminding parents that, if they want their kids to be vaccinated by the first day of school, it's time to book an appointment.

For Grant County Middle School eighth-grader Gracee Hutchinson, the decision to get the shot came down to a single factor.

"I just don't want to wear a mask," she said. "So I just got it."

But for her mother, the decision was a bit more complicated.

"I do believe there are a lot of children that are immune-compromised," said Rebecca Hutchinson. "My daughter had a medical condition when she was younger and being exposed to certain illnesses would've been life-threatening to her."

With these things in mind, Gracee rolled up her sleeve Thursday at Holmes High School in Covington, Kentucky, which held a vaccination clinic that afternoon for students hoping to get their shots before school starts next month.

Gracee is near the bottom of the eligible age group, which cuts off at age 12.

Doses must be spaced three weeks apart, giving students like her just enough time to get both doses before school resumes. Covington Independent Schools hosted Thursday's clinic to line up with their students' Aug. 19 return.

Dr. Robert Frenck, director of the Center for Vaccine Research at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, said the only reason case numbers have trended down in recent months is because of the vaccine.

"This virus, we're getting ahead of things, we're getting better," he said. "Our rates are dropping. That's only because we're vaccinating. If we stop, the virus is going to pop back up again. … It's not if. It's when."

Encouraging students to get vaccinated in time for the 2021-22 school year, Frenck said, is a must to continue those trends.

"Most of them don't get that sick, but some of them do get very sick," he said. "And I can't predict who that is, and that's why I need to vaccinate everyone to protect every child because I don't want to see any child hospitalized or die from something we could've prevented."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 3% of people ages 12 to 15 years old have gotten at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine. For ages 16 to 17, it's only 2%. Frenck said he hopes to see those numbers increase.

"Kids are getting infected, and the percentage of them getting infected are (sic) increasing," he said.

Rebecca Hutchinson hopes to see more kids get their shots, too.

"I think it's important for our society to build this immunization to COVID so we can go back to normal," she said.

It remained unclear Thursday when the FDA might authorize the vaccine for children younger than 12. Health officials predict it likely will not be any earlier than September and could be as late as January 2022, depending on when the government grants the Pfizer vaccine full approval.

CINCINNATI —

Thousands of staff at Cincinnati Children's are using virtual reality training to help move into the new Critical Care Building this fall.

The layout and experience will be different in this facility. So knowing where everything is and how to navigate it, will be critical.

The technology is state of the art.

"Things can happen so quickly so the more that we can become acclimated to the environment, the better. So this was a great way for us to see the space and how we would move around in it so we can focus on our patients when we move into the new building," said Kelly Ely, nurse in PICU at Cincinnati Children's.

There are eight virtual reality stations. More than 3,000 front-line workers will be coming and training on it. This is one of the largest V-R onboarding experiences in the world.

Ryan Moore is a doctor at Children's.

"I started out as a digital arts background. Failed out of that and became a cardiologist," said Dr. Ryan Moore, co-director of digital experience technology labs at Children's.

His mission has been to utilize his gaming and medical background to help colleagues in the most realistic setting possible.

He collaborated with Children's team of digital experience creators to make this a possibility.

"It's fun to make video games that save lives," said Matthew NeCamp, an application specialist.

A big move with virtual reality hoping to ease the transition.

CINCINNATI —

New research by scientists in Cincinnati is looking at whether different Food and Drug Administration emergency-approved COVID-19 vaccines can be mixed if there’s a need for boosters.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital is researching the possibility of using the mRNA Moderna vaccine as a booster for the one-shot DNA Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Children’s Hospital will soon be looking at other combinations of approved vaccines too.

“We know people are going to go do this, so we want to have data to inform the community. It may not be the greatest idea, or maybe it looks fine, it doesn’t cause any problems,” said Dr. Robert Frenck of Children’s Hospital.

Frenck led the Pfizer vaccine research at Children’s and is now leading the research on COVID-19 vaccines for children. He’s also part of the new research into boosters and combining vaccine platforms.

Frenck said there are lots of unknowns about mixing vaccines for boosters right now.

“Does that make any difference in the side effects? Does it have any effect in their immune response? Does it go up compared with people who stayed with the same vaccine?” Frenck said.

Another series of studies are being done by the global company CTI, headquartered in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

CTI is studying a Johnson & Johnson vaccine with a Johnson & Johnson booster.

Another important question is if boosters will be needed at all.

Frenck said the most current data shows the vaccines are as effective at six months as they were at two months.

“We were concerned that the vaccine would only last a few months and we would need a booster. Right now, if things stay the way they are, we may not need one,” Frenck said.

CINCINNATI —

Cincinnati Children's is breaking ground on a new $99 million inpatient mental health facility in College Hill.

Children and adolescents are struggling with unprecedented levels of depression, anxiety, mood disorders, post-traumatic stress and other mental and behavioral health conditions.

Mental illness is one of the most pressing health issues of our time, and it has been exacerbated with the isolation and the stressors associated with COVID-19.

“Cincinnati Children's has a deep commitment to mental health and a great inpatient facility and residential facility, but we're now transforming that to make sure it's got all of the right services, all of the right privacy, and all of the right capabilities to continue providing the very best care,” said Michael Fisher, president and CEO of Cincinnati Children’s.

Cincinnati Children’s commitment to research and treatment of child and teen mental health goes back more than two decades, and the medical center has one of the largest behavioral health care systems for children and adolescents in the country.

But the community still faces an uphill battle.

“The expansion is critical to what we want to do to improve our care, improve access to care and make sure we’re more inclusive to families,” said Michael Sorter, MD, director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Cincinnati Children’s.

The new five-story facility will replace the current inpatient building. Encompassing 160,000 square feet, the state-of-the-art facility will be 68% larger than the current one. The new building will include private rooms for all inpatients.

There will be dedicated spaces for group therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy and recreational therapy. The facility will also be the new home for expanded services for patients with neurodevelopment disorders. College Hill is part of a mental health system of care that seeks to identify and prevent more severe diseases.

The expansion is made possible through a $36 million gift from the Convalescent Hospital Fund for Children, which covers about one-third of the cost. Cincinnati Children’s operating revenues will cover another third of the project costs. An additional $36 million is still needed from philanthropic supporters in the community.

“Through the work that we're doing together to raise the funds to build this building, we actually can make a difference. Treatment does make a difference for kids with mental illness. So, we all need to do this together,” said Susan Shelton, board chair for the Convalescent Hospital Fund for Children.

The new building is scheduled to open in late 2023. To support fundraising efforts for the new facility, click here.

CINCINNATI —

Doctors are expecting kids as young as 12 years old to be getting the Pfizer vaccine locally as soon as Wednesday or Thursday after the Food and Drug Administration made it available through new emergency approval.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the states have to sign off on the approval which is expected to happen very quickly.

“Having the vaccine available now for 12 and above is going to really be a big step forward to make our return to normal much quicker,” Dr. Robert Frenck said.

Frenck led the Pfizer trials for adults at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and is now working on research on children down to age 5.

“I’m really excited about having the vaccine available for 12 and above. I’m going to be more excited when we have it for younger children,” Frenck said.

Frenck expects the vaccine for those ages 5 to 11 to be approved by the fall.

The biggest impact of the approval is that many parents are now facing the decision to vaccinate their children.

Cincinnati Children’s chief of staff Patty Manning said the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the risks.

The American Pediatrics Association numbers show 3.8 million kids have had COVID-19, 15,000 have been hospitalized, more than 300 have died.

Cincinnati is not immune to the trends.

“Every day here at Children’s Hospital, since I can’t remember when, we’ve had at least one, if not many children hospitalized with COVID. That is the reality,” Manning said. “We can’t promise you, neither Dr. Frenck nor myself could ever promise you your child won’t get COVID and that it wouldn’t be serious, But we can promise you with the vaccine the chance of that happening is significantly reduced.”

CINCINNATI — The Christ Hospital Health Network is the latest hospital system to announce staffing changes and pay cuts due to COVID-19.

Christ announced on Friday that it will cut pay by 25% for executive leadership and redeploy other employees into new roles.

“Doctors, advanced practice providers, nurses and all other caregivers who are directly on the front lines, providing patient care in the fight against COVID-19, will be fully supported and financially protected at 100% of pay," Christ spokesman Bo McMillan wrote in a statement. "All employees not on the front line will be re-deployed as much as possible or will be guaranteed financial stability at 75% of regular wages for the next month."

In addition to hospitals in Mt. Auburn and Liberty Township, Christ operates more than 100 medical centers and physician practices throughout the Cincinnati area.

“As we are preparing for the surge in COVID-19 cases, we, like all other hospitals, have simultaneously been forced to manage a decline in patient volumes, as most non-urgent, non-emergent services have been halted,” McMillan wrote. “We will continuously re-evaluate this pandemic staffing model as the situation evolves over the next few, critical weeks.”

Hospital systems across the region are struggling financially due to the elimination of elective surgeries and routine doctor visits put in place by government leaders to halt the spread of COVID-19.

This week Bon Secours Mercy Health announced furloughs for 700 employees — or 1% of its 60,000 staffing base — which became effective on Friday. The furloughs are expected to last 30 to 90 days.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented demand for health care services, while simultaneously causing an unprecedented decline in other services and work within Mercy Health," Mercy spokeswoman Nanette Bentley wrote in a statement. "In response, we are acting quickly to redeploy or temporarily furlough associates who are unable to work due to temporary closure, cancellation and low census in primary care, outpatient and surgical services."

Mercy Health, the largest health system in Ohio, announced pay changes for some of its doctors last week.

“If your productivity declined significantly, we will reduce your base draw commensurate to 70% of your historical average productivity. At this time, we do not anticipate needing to reduce your base draw below 70%," according to an email obtained by WCPO.

TriHealth President and CEO Mark Clement notified employees of a 20% pay cut for senior leaders during the same week.

There are also changes at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, which temporarily closed locations in Eastgate, Mason and Northern Kentucky as a result of COVID-19.

"In addition, all elective surgeries and some appointments have been canceled to help build capacity for a potential COVID-19 surge," according to Cincinnati Children's senior director of external relations Libby Coulton. "As a result, many of our employees are being re-assigned to other locations. And some may be temporarily released from their duties."