Shriners Children's Scoliosis Patients Give Back

Patient Ambassadors Have Our Back

Several Shriners Children's patient ambassadors who have scoliosis have sponsored fundraisers, toy drives and school projects, to raise money and awareness about Shriners Children’s. Frequently, patients and families seek opportunities to help support Shriners Children's knowing that we provide care regardless of a family’s ability to pay or insurance status.

Patient ambassador Julia has been a patient at Shriners Children’s since she was 7. For years, she wore various back braces, eventually having vertebral body tethering (VBT) surgery when she was 11. Joshua Pahys, M.D., performed the surgery.

Julia states that all of the toys she received during each visit to the hospital, especially her American Girl Doll, made her appointments quite memorable. She recently celebrated her bat mitzvah by holding a toy drive for the hospital. She reached out to family, friends and neighbors and was able to collect over 200 toys (including the American Girl Doll) for the patients at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia.

Patient ambassador Nathan was also diagnosed with scoliosis at age 7. After wearing a series of five braces, he had VBT surgery. Amer Samdani, M.D., chief of surgery, performed the procedure. Nathan grew 2 inches after surgery, started breathing better, and returned to playing baseball.

Nathan teamed up with two other patients to do a fundraiser selling comfy and cozy socks to benefit Shriners Children’s Philadelphia. They worked with patient advocate Maria Follenius to advertise their fundraiser on a Facebook scoliosis group page and raised over $1,300 for the hospital. He and his mom, Kirsten, also sponsor other patients with care packages coming to the hospital for scoliosis surgery.