By GINA KINSLOW
Nine-year-old Brooklyn Alexander and her family spent a portion of last week in Washington D.C. demonstrating their support for children’s hospitals as part of the National Association of Children’s Hospitals Family Advocacy Day.
“Brooklyn was one of 50 kids who traveled to Capitol Hill last week to advocate on behalf of children’s hospitals and healthcare reform,” said Norida Torriente, associate director of public relations for the National Association of Children’s Hospitals. “She and her family met with a number of members from her delegation back home. They visited with Rep. Geoff Davis and he took Brooklyn and her sister out to the floor to observe the voting process. The day they were in town there were 28 amendments that were being voted on.”
In addition to Davis, the Alexanders also met with Congressmen John Yarmuth and Brett Guthrie and U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, Torriente said.
Brooklyn was born with a single ventricle heart defect that doctors diagnosed before she was born. A pacemaker was implanted when she was a newborn, and at 6 months she underwent the first of two planned open-heart surgeries at Kosair Children’s Hospital. Her first surgery was met with complications and two weeks later she underwent an unplanned open-heart procedure. Six months later the arteries to her lungs were reconstructed, and at age 2 she underwent a Fontan operation to correct her single ventricle defect.
To date she has had nine surgeries and has spent a lot of time at Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville. During her visits to the hospital, she has made many friends and was recently chosen to serve as a spokesperson for the hospital.
“She has been a spokesperson for them in one of their magazines. The title of the magazine was ‘Get Healthy.’ She was in one of the print advertisements for Kosair Children’s Hospital,” said her mom, Vickie.
Brooklyn began acting as a spokesperson for the hospital about two years ago by appearing in a round of advertising, said Keri Shain, senior marketing manager for Kosair Children’s Hospital.
“Last year, in September, we kicked off the Just Kids Growth Campaign, which is a $208 million campaign to provide new services at the hospital. Matt spoke at that event and Brooklyn served as our co-emcee,” Shain said.
Brooklyn’s family was excited to learn she would be one of several children chosen nationwide to travel to Washington D.C. to advocate on behalf of children’s hospitals and healthcare reform.
“Our main thing we wanted to make sure they remembered were children’s hospitals and the needs for them and the specialization there,” said Vickie.
The Alexanders shared their story with legislators so they could see from a family’s perspective how important children’s hospitals are.
“I experienced some surgery about a month or so ago and it just drove home the point that children’s hospitals are geared toward taking care of the entire family,” said Brooklyn’s dad, Matt. “Without Kosair Children’s Hospital, we would have had to travel out of state for Brooklyn’s care. For that reason we understand the importance of having access to specialists and a hospital that is dedicated to the special needs of children and their families. It is important for us to play a role in ensuring other children have access to the same quality care that Brooklyn received at Kosair Children’s.”
