The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a nonprofit that helps kids with serious medical issues experience the joys of camp, sent 30 volunteers to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia last summer. They were armed with activity plans, supplies and an endless amount of energy and compassion.

When leaders at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia wanted more insight into the patient experience and how it could be improved, they sought out experts: The kids themselves.

Rescued from Haiti with numerous health problems, Bryon, 3, was fortunate to end up with a loving family living right in CHOP’s backyard.

Music therapist Mike Mahoney, MA, MT-BC, offers up instruments from his cart: maracas, a drum, a keyboard. The children at the Alex Scott Day Hospital are eager to sing and play music.

Sedation is common before procedures and scans such as an MRI, and as a child life specialist in Radiology’s Sedation Unit, Melanie Hoynoski is there to prepare kids on what to expect.

In the latest report from CHOP’s Division of General, Thoracic and Fetal Surgery, we highlight some of the ways our clinicians — with the help of philanthropic partners — are breaking new ground in pediatric and fetal surgery.

Noni Diarra, a biopsy specimen technician at CHOP, will represent her home state as the recently crowned Miss Pennsylvania.