Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital Appoints Walk Ambassador

VALHALLA, N.Y. (August 6, 2020) – Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, a member of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth), has appointed Jorden Hutchins, 8, as an official hospital ambassador for its 16th Annual Go the Distance fundraising event. Hutchins received his official ambassador sash during a special ceremony at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, which was attended by his family and members of the hospital’s pediatric care team.

In May, Hutchins was in Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit due to complications from Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C) that landed him on life support. With the help of Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital’s pediatric experts, Jorden recovered and is doing well today. As a Go the Distance hospital ambassador, Jorden will help represent the thousands of seriously ill and injured children cared for by Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital services each year.

Go the Distance to Make a Difference

This year’s Go the Distance fundraising event - which is typically attended by hundreds of supporters and includes a one-mile walk around WMCHealth’s Valhalla, NY campus - will be held virtually. Those interested in supporting Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital and its care of the Hudson Valley’s most seriously ill and injured children are encouraged to create a fundraising team and hold a socially-distant, one-mile walk on the course of their choosing any time between now and Sunday, September 13, 2020. Donated funds will support the advanced care services provided to children like Jorden at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital.

Jorden’s Recovery from Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome

This spring Jorden fell ill with a cough and had difficulty breathing. After four days of high fevers Jorden’s family brought him to Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital for care, where his condition worsened rapidly due to what was later identified as Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome

(MIS-C). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that while the causes for MIS-C in children are currently unknown, “many children with MIS-C had the virus that causes COVID-19” or had been exposed to someone with COVID-19.*

Jorden was rushed to Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit where he was placed on a ventilator. With his heart failing, the care team at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital conducted an emergency procedure to provide extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a treatment that the American Thoracic Society says temporarily replaces the function of the heart and the lungs.**

ECMO is a complex treatment that requires a multidisciplinary team of specialists to execute. After the second of two heart procedures during his course of care, Jorden’s health improved significantly, his ECMO and ventilator treatments ended and as his recovery continued, Jorden was discharged to return home.

Jorden, who will turn 9 on August 15, loves math and history and will enter the fourth grade this fall at Our Lady of Victory Elementary School in Mount Vernon.

Jorden’s mom, Beverly Hutchins said Jorden was very fortunate to have been treated by such a professional team. “I am so very grateful to all the doctors and nurses in the pediatric intensive care unit at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital. The care he received was extraordinary. He is feeling very good, and he is enjoying all of the attention!”

About Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, a member of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network

Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital is the children’s hospital for New York’s Hudson Valley region and Fairfield County, Connecticut. Located in Valhalla, NY, this 136-bed advanced pediatrics facility cares for the region’s most seriously ill and injured children including those in need of cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, hematology and oncology treatments, organ transplants and other specialty pediatric services. Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital is also home to the area’s only Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Level I pediatric trauma and burn care programs and its Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. For more information on Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, interested parties can visit WestchesterMedicalCenter.org/MFCH or follow the hospital at Facebook.com/MFCHatWMC and Twitter.com/MFCHatWMC.

About Westchester Medical Center Health Network

The Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth) is a 1,700-bed healthcare system headquartered in Valhalla, New York, with 10 hospitals on eight campuses spanning 6,200 square miles of the Hudson Valley. WMCHealth employs more than 12,000 people and has nearly 3,000 attending physicians. From Level 1, Level 2 and Pediatric Trauma Centers, the region’s only acute care children’s hospital, an academic medical center, several community hospitals, dozens of specialized institutes and centers, skilled nursing, assisted living facilities, homecare services and one of the largest mental health systems in New York State, today WMCHealth is the pre-eminent provider of integrated healthcare in the Hudson Valley. For more information about WMCHealth, visit WMCHealth.org.

*From the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

**According to the American Thoracic Society’s What is ECMO?