Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Shriners Hospital for Children

We would like to know of anyone that has been helped at our Shriner's Hospitals for Children. I am writing a report to be given tomorrow,(Monday) at our general meeting. If you know of anyone, please let me know. I will need permission from the parents before I can use the names and details. This is very strictly followed because of privacy. Most people we have been in contact with are very willing to share their experience and have nothing but praise for the way their case was handled. Our current project is making plans to hold a screening clinic where any child with a disability involving orthopedic problems, scars from burns or cleft lip/palette will be evaluated. This is the first step in admittance to the Hospitals for treatment. It will be held at the Wiggins Primary Care, 200 Costal Paper Av, Wiggins, MS on Oct. 12, from 2-6:00 p.m. Help will be available for filling out the applications and a Spanish translator will be available if needed. If you know of anyone that will be attending our Screening Clinic, they should call 601-928-9200 to make an appointment as this covers a large area and the appointments may fill up quickly as the time approaches. If you have any information that I can use about your child or one you know, please let me know as I will be giving a report on a monthly basis.

One of our Pond Boss pond meisters telephoned yesterday and gave me some information to discuss and pass on to the nobles at our general Shrine meeting last night. I want to thank him as this was very helpful. I also discussed our screening clinc that is coming up Ocober 12 and went into detail on what we will accomplish. I then talked on tele-medicine and how we can better serve our children that are involved with care from our hospitals.Very interesting meeting and if everything gels it will be great for children and parents. Do not look for tele-medicine to start up for a while as screening is keeping us a little busy. thanks

We came home yesterday late afternoon after being gone this past weekend and had 4 telephone calls requesting information. While we were out of town we had a person from another state with problems with two children. We will follow up and see if help is available for this health condition. It is wonderful to talk with people on children health problems because we might be able to make the necessary contacts for help. It also hurts to see children that are not healthy. We are desiring to help as many as possible and we will welcome walk ins as well as the ones that have called for appointments. We desire to help children that have health conditions.

So far we have 16 appointments for October 18. There will be many more walk ins. The usual response from the callers is they know there are many more children that need help more so than they. This one in particular could not put on shoes because of the extreme high arch. We are trying to reach out and make them as comfortable as possible, we inform them if they have any other questions or can not understand our map to feel free to telephone. We will have Spanish speaking people to assist as needed. This is really a great opportunity to help so many children and their lifes will reflect from this help. We also telephone certain ones that have received help to see if they would like to tell their story to Stone County Shrine club. We are receiving positive feedback and if they decide to go to Jopppa some have indicated they may need assistance in front of larger groups. This is no problem as we have several people that will assist them as needed. Our theory is to make Shriners more aware of what takes place in our hospitals and they (shriners) tell me these speakers are great. We desire our awareness to be on the children and the help they are receiving. It is encouraging to see a few Shriners and Ladies that become choked up, this applies to me also.

I have the wrong date on previous article it should be October 12. Mistakes must come with age. We just received word that the children we met in Missouri should qualify for help. They will contact the parents Monday and will also keep us informed. We always worry that someone will get lost in the shuffle. We also realize everybody is very busy so this could contribute to problems , but we expect no problems. This will be treated in the Shrine hospital in Saint Louis Mo. One thing about the Shrine people is they reach out for helping children. We did not get home until after midnight last night as we work to raise money for the Shrine. I feel the need to add one sentence to clarify the Shrine, It does not replace the church even though it is God connected. We do need your prayers and support. Please attend the church of your choice.

Many things we take for granite but I would be remis if I did not thank Pond Boss for allowing me to post for the Shrine Hospital for Children, also the ones that desire to use help and have allowed me to remain upfront so to speak---thanks. We would appreciate you posting appreciation of the Shriners Hospital for children. Everything is free, the screening is all free. We appreciate the opportunity to help children so they may have a better life. I do not mean to push the Shrine but I do intend to push the hospitals. We have 22 hospitals in the United States and Mexico, we spend $19 per second to operate these hospitals, Joppa Shrine organization at Biloxi Mississippi furnish transportation to over 200 children and parents each year. The hospital had about 1,200 applications last year, admissions were about 600 , procedures were 2,500. There is much more information but my desire is to let you be aware of what is happening. The Shrine is always trying to raise money to fulfil all the various needs. There is van upkeep and operating expenses. One of our vans broke down in Texas and the sheriff loaned the driver his brand new large pickup to finish the run. When he arrived at the hospital about midnight there was a team of doctors and nurses waiting to fulfil their duties. Iv to replace fluid and antibiotic was administered within 15 minutes. He was in icu and all hooked up as he was in that type of shape and in pain. October 12 from 2 pm to 6 pm is our screening clinc in Wiggins Ms. We need your support and I am not talking about money.

As of noon today we have appointments for 19 children to be screened by Dr. Burns and his personnel. We are trying to get on Fox t v so we can reach more people. We still expect more walk ins. Cleft lip will be one of the items that screening will pick up. We are very excited that so many childrens parents are coming forward requesting screening. There is a lot of self satisfaction when you are able to help a child. I guess you can tell we are very excited having this all come together from so much hard work by many Shriners and their Ladies. Please forgive me for crowding out someone elses Help request. Two more days.

We are setting up two schools for Friday fire prevention. This is fire prevention week and we want to take the third grade of these two schools. We will have two capable people from the fire department to give these talks. We may talk for a short period of time on our hospitals and burns. If we can make children more able to rationalize the consequences it might keep them away from fires.

We now have 30 children with appointments for the Shriners screening clinc. It will be a very busy afternoon. The telephone has been ringing all morning.

25 children showed up for the screening and out of that 21 need orthopaedic care at our hospital in Shreveport and one needs care at our Galveston hospital for burn scars. We do have one Child that we signed up earlier that Needs to go to Chicago Illinois for a specialized bone procedure of the foot. This will probably cause a discussion as this is an expensive trip , but rest assured the child will get what it needs.
While standing at Walmart to raise money for the hospitals a small 3rd grade girl came up to me and said I know you. We held two fire prevention classes last week with the Wiggins fire department and the small girl rememebered me . Oh for the love of children. Please forgive me for crowding out the previous topic.

We received a phone call yesterday about a girl needing a kidney transplant. Our Shriners Hospitals for Children are specialized in treating orthopaedic problems, cleft lip/cleft palate, spinal cord injuries and burns. We felt we had to help in any way we can to get this little girl a kidney transplant. She was born with a kidney disease. In layman's terms, there was an eggshell around her kidney's. As she has grown, one kidney did not grow at all and the other has stopped maturing. The calcium buildup has taken over her kidneys. Jena is 11 years old and in the 5th grade. She has been treated at Tulane Hospital in New Orleans. Being in Louisiana, Tulane would not accept Mississippi Medicade. The surgery will cost between $75,000-$150,000. After she has the surgery, her medication will cost $800-$5,000 per month. Her medicade will only pay for 5 medications per month. She will be on 13. We are running newspaper ads, announcements on radio and tv to bring notice to her plight. There will be a benefit for Jena at the American Legion in Picayune on Nov. 12th beginning at 12 noon. There will be a turkey shoot, fish plate dinners, bake sale, and items to be auctioned, plus there will be raffles on a handmade gun cabinet and a shotgun. If you would like to help this family save their daughters life, you can make donations to a fund in her name, Jena Serigne, at the First Southern Bank in Picayune.