A Mother’s Gift: The Foundation for a Lifelong Passion in Writing
Every mother has her unique way of guiding and teaching her children. My mother was no exception. She was instrumental in teaching me to read and write even before I started my formal education. Her nurturing and guidance have made me who I am today: a passionate writer and the proud author of the L.A. Loft Blog and Entar.com. As we celebrate Mother’s Day, I want to share my story as a tribute to my mother and all the amazing moms out there who shape their children’s lives in profound ways.
The Wise Woman and Her Free-Range Approach
My mother was not the type to constantly instruct me on what to do or not to do. Instead, she was more of a free-range mom who believed in giving me space to learn and grow at my own pace. She offered valuable advice when needed, and time has revealed that she was, indeed, a wise woman. Her approach allowed me to develop a strong sense of independence and curiosity, which later translated into my passion for reading and writing.
The California Home
The Gift of Reading and Writing
Before I even set foot in my first grade classroom, my mother had already taught me to read and write at a third-grade level. She recognized the importance of a strong foundation in literacy and spent countless hours nurturing my abilities. This early start in my education not only made me feel confident and ready for school but also sparked a love for reading and writing that has stayed with me throughout my life.
The L.A. Loft Blog: A Testament to a Mother’s Love
In addition to Loft Blog readers, friends and clients, my mother’s guidance and support led to my success. Her belief in me and her dedication to my education laid the groundwork for my passion for writing. This Mother’s Day, I want to acknowledge her impact on my life and express my gratitude for her unwavering love and support.
A Gift for All Mothers
This Mother’s Day, let’s celebrate the wisdom, love, and dedication of all mothers, both present and those who are no longer with us. Each mother has her unique way of shaping her children’s lives, and their influence lasts a lifetime. So here’s a heartfelt gift to all moms out there: Buy a home in May, get $5,000 cash from your broker, the Corey Chambers Team, at closing. Happy Mother’s Day!
Though my mother is no longer here, her legacy lives on in my writing and my love for reading. Her wisdom and love have made a lasting impact on my life, and I am forever grateful. As we celebrate Mother’s Day, let’s remember to honor and appreciate the incredible women who have made us who we are today. Happy Mother’s Day to all the wise, loving, and dedicated mothers out there. Your impact is immeasurable, and your love knows no bounds.
Corey Chambers Team raising $25,000 for CHLA
Supporting Moms at Children’s Hospital: How Your Real Estate Referrals Can Help Families in Need
There are many ways to make a positive impact on the lives of families with sick children. At Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the dedicated staff goes above and beyond to support mothers whose children are fighting for their lives. As we approach Mother’s Day, it’s important to remember that many moms are by their child’s bedside, focusing on their well-being rather than on their own special day. One way you can help these moms and their children is through your real estate referrals. Read on to learn how your referrals can make a difference in the lives of these families.
The Mission: Raising $25,000 for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Our team is on a mission to raise $25,000 for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The funds raised will support the Children’s Recovery Center, where kids battling cancer and other debilitating diseases receive life-saving care. The Recovery Center relies on sponsorships and donations to operate, and your real estate referrals can help ensure that more children have access to this vital resource.
Children receiving care at the Children’s Recovery Center are 300% more likely to enter remission when they can access its services. With your help, we can make a difference in the lives of these young patients and their families.
How Your Referrals Help the Kids
When you refer someone to our real estate sales team, not only do they benefit from our award-winning service, but we also donate a substantial portion of our income from every home sale to Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. This means that your referrals directly contribute to the well-being of children in need.
How to Make a Referral
Referring someone is easy. Just visit entar.com/kids or call us directly at 213-880-9910. You can rest assured that your referrals will receive excellent service, as well as our exclusive guarantees:
Home Sellers: We will sell your home at your price, or we’ll buy it ourselves.*
Home Buyers: If you are not completely satisfied with your home within 24 months of purchase, we will buy it back or sell it for free, your choice.*
Why Your Referrals Matter
Your referrals not only help us provide top-notch real estate services, but they also support a worthy cause. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles relies on the generosity of people like you to continue its life-saving work.
As we honor mothers this month, let’s not forget the moms who are fighting for their children’s lives. Your referrals can make a difference for these families and help Children’s Hospital continue its vital mission.
*Conditions apply. Please inquire for details.
A Lifelong Connection: Why I Support Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) is a beacon of hope for countless families in need of specialized care for their children. As a native of the Greater Los Angeles Area, I have always felt a deep connection to this incredible institution and its mission. In this article, I will share my personal story of why I support Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and how my team and I work together to contribute to their cause.
A Personal Connection to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
We are grateful for your support in our effort to raise $25,000 for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. By referring friends, family, and associates to our real estate sales team, you’re not only helping them find their dream home, but you’re also giving back to a meaningful cause. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of children and their families. Visit www.ReferralsHelpKids.com or call us at 213-880-9910 to make a referral today.
Growing up in the Greater Los Angeles Area, I was born in Los Angeles County at St. Francis Hospital. My connection to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles began when a young person close to our family suffered from a severe illness and received treatment at CHLA. This experience opened my eyes to the vital work carried out by the dedicated healthcare professionals at the hospital. As a result, I felt compelled to contribute to their mission in any way possible.
The Common Cause: Healing Young Lives
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles brings together hard-working healthcare professionals from the Los Angeles area, united by a common cause – to help young people overcome the health challenges life sometimes presents. As a native of the area, I take immense pride in supporting the incredible work carried out by the CHLA team. My team and I have made it our annual goal to raise money and donate a portion of our income to help CHLA in their quest to heal young people when they need it the most.
Our Commitment to Supporting CHLA
My team and I are dedicated to providing outstanding results for buyers and sellers referred to us by our past clients. We have found that Children’s Hospital Los Angeles shares a similar commitment to their patients. Since their services rely on sponsorships and donations, we are delighted to contribute and proud to support their life-changing work.
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is an institution that has touched the lives of countless families in the Greater Los Angeles Area. My personal connection to CHLA has inspired me and my team to support their mission in any way we can. By raising funds and donating a portion of our income, we aim to contribute to the incredible work they do to heal young lives. Together, we can make a difference and help CHLA continue to provide hope and healing to those who need it the most.
20 Years After Facing Retinoblastoma, a Father Fights for His Son’s Sight
As a child, Jake Olson lost both his eyes to retinoblastoma. When his infant son was diagnosed, the family returned to CHLA for leading cancer treatment with a vastly different outlook.
Jake Olson is no stranger to adversity. As a survivor of bilateral retinoblastoma—a rare childhood cancer that took both of his eyes and his sight by age 12—he built a life defined by resilience, going on to become an athlete, motivational speaker, and advocate.
But nothing could prepare him for the news he received in January 2025: His newborn son, Rowan—just 6 days old—had been born with the same eye cancer.
“It was absolutely devastating,” Jake recalls. “We’d been praying he didn’t get the retinoblastoma gene. There was a 50% chance he wouldn’t, but sure enough, he did.”
Fortunately, Jake knew exactly where to turn. He’d received his own cancer treatment at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, one of the leading retinoblastoma centers in the world. It didn’t matter that he and his wife, Audrey, now lived 3,000 miles away in Florida.
Within days, they were on a plane to Los Angeles, headed straight for CHLA.
“There was no other choice in our minds,” Jake says. “We knew we had to come to CHLA for Rowan’s treatment, even if it meant traveling across the country.”
There was no other choice in our minds. We knew we had to come to CHLA for Rowan’s treatment, even if it meant traveling across the country. Jake Olson
There was no other choice in our minds. We knew we had to come to CHLA for Rowan’s treatment, even if it meant traveling across the country. — Jake Olson
Using a special camera that shows all the layers of the retina, Jesse Berry, MD, Chief of Ophthalmology and Director of the Retinoblastoma Program, found two tiny, cancerous tumors—one less than a millimeter in size—in both of Rowan’s eyes.
But there was good news, too: Today’s treatments look vastly different from those Jake had as a child.
CHLA has been at the forefront of many of those treatment advances. Under the leadership of the late A. Linn Murphree, MD—Jake’s ophthalmologist as a child—the hospital helped pioneer diagnostic tools and treatment techniques that are now standard practice across the globe. Dr. Murphree also played a pivotal role in identifying the gene mutation linked to retinoblastoma.
Over the past decade, Dr. Berry has continued that legacy, pioneering a groundbreaking liquid biopsy that uses the clear fluid in the front of the eye to detect retinoblastoma.
The test became clinically available in 2024 and not only enables clinicians to more safely and efficiently diagnose the cancer, but also to find key markers that can predict the severity of the disease and help guide treatment.
“What Dr. Murphree implemented and built here, and what Dr. Berry continues to grow, is the crown jewel of treating retinoblastoma,” Jake reflects. “There truly is no other place I’d rather take Rowan.”
A generational battle
Although Rowan’s tumors were tiny—only a few experts in the world have the capability to detect such early-stage tumors—one of them was particularly risky. It grew next to his optic nerve, an essential link between the eye and the brain.
Fortunately, Rowan’s liquid biopsy didn’t show any aggressive markers that would indicate rapid growth or risk of spreading to other parts of the body.
His oncologist, Rima Jubran, MD, MPH, MACM—who also treated Jake as a child—explains that the father and son are not the first such familial pair CHLA has treated for the rare cancer.
“We see and treat patients with different presentations of retinoblastoma all the time, which is something that very few centers in the country can say,” she notes. “We have a full multidisciplinary team that’s dedicated to this disease.”
Working together, the care team quickly developed a plan. Rowan would receive a combination of systemic and intravitreal chemotherapy as well as targeted laser treatments that aimed to shrink the cancer, stop it from spreading outside the eyes, and preserve Rowan’s vision.
We see and treat patients with different presentations of retinoblastoma all the time, which is something that very few centers in the country can say. We have a full multidisciplinary team that’s dedicated to this disease. — Dr. Rima Jubran
30 years of progress in retinoblastoma care
Jake’s experience couldn’t have been more different than Rowan’s: As an 8-month-old in the 1990s, Jake’s parents noticed a strange “glow” in his left eye. Often the first outward sign of disease, this glow indicates a tumor is already growing behind the pupil.
By the time Jake was seen at CHLA, he had advanced disease with high-risk, difficult-to-treat tumors in both eyes. The best option at that stage was to remove the 8-month-old’s left eye and deliver systemic chemotherapy to treat the cancer in the remaining eye.
Over the next 12 years, Jake went in and out of remission nine times before his care team ultimately made the devastating decision to remove his second eye. Dr. Berry recalls that throughout Dr. Murphree’s life, he cited removing Jake’s second eye as one of the hardest days of his career.
“Rowan will have a significantly different ocular outcome than Jake did,” says Dr. Berry. “He also has such strength in his parents. They understand this disease and can walk through it with him.”
“We like to think that a tough case like Jake’s has helped empower advances in treatment and set Rowan up for this success,” says Rowan’s mom Audrey. “That’s not scientific, but everything regarding Rowan’s care has sort of fallen into place as we’ve gone through this journey.”
A difficult chapter
Throughout 2025, Jake, Audrey, and Rowan made the trip to CHLA nearly every month for monitoring, laser therapy, and systemic chemo, which can often result in extreme nausea, fatigue, bruising, bleeding, and hair loss.
“It’s been very emotional,” Jake says. “Laying in the chemo room with him put me right back there myself. It’s so difficult to watch your baby go through that.”
After six rounds of treatment—six trips from Florida to California and back—Rowan’s care team shared the good news: His tumors had shrunk enough that he’d only need monitoring and local treatment to the eye. No more systemic chemo.
The best part: He’d maintained his vision.
On Dec. 16, 2025, just ahead of the holiday season and Rowan’s first birthday, he rang the end-of-treatment bell to celebrate.
While the family still travels to CHLA regularly, Jake and Audrey describe this milestone as a massive relief. “There’s been a lot to celebrate even through all this hardship,” says Audrey. “Ringing the bell felt like a big step toward the end goal.”
Resilience is genetic
“I personally know what it’s like to go through this, so it meant the world to me to see Rowan reach this milestone,” Jake says. “It’s something that should be celebrated. He’s only a baby, but the strength and resiliency he’s built here will carry him far.”
If Rowan is anything like his dad, he’ll only continue to cultivate that strength and resiliency as he grows.
Jake continued to pursue his passions after losing his eyes—even the ones that felt impossible, like playing football. In 2015, he became the first blind Division 1 football player as a long snapper for the USC Trojans; In 2022, he was the only fully blind athlete to compete in the U.S. Adaptive Open. He’s shared his story on countless stages over the last two decades and continues to channel his love of sports into programs that support retinoblastoma treatment and research.
“Jake truly is an astounding spirit,” says Dr. Berry. “He has so much light around him. Somebody who’s lost both their eyes could easily be bitter or blameful. But he’s a very spiritual person, and he believes that some greater good will come from this.”
While Jake and Audrey will undoubtedly pass their mutual love of sports on to Rowan someday, right now they most look forward to watching him be a typical baby.
“That’s what makes me smile the most,” Jake says. “He learned to walk recently. He just celebrated his first Christmas and his first birthday.”
“And knowing he’s able to see … I mean, that’s why we did this, right? To save his sight. To save him. To enjoy those moments where he’s using his eyes to be a happy kid.”
I personally know what it’s like to go through this, so it meant the world to me to see Rowan reach this milestone. It’s something that should be celebrated. — Jake Olson
Anyone you know who might be making a move — refer them to the Corey Chambers real estate team. Not only will they benefit from our award winning service, but this very worthy cause will benefit as well. Corey Chambers 213-880-9910 helpkids@coreychambers.com entar.com.com/kids
I read that we are working from January 1st through June 30th of each year to pay all of our taxes. Before that, 100% goes to the government in some form or fashion. It pays for some kind of government worker, work program, social program, defense, project, health care, common good. Whatever you want to call it, April 15th is TAX day, the deadline for filing your federal income taxes.
So in celebration of this particular time of year, let’s talk TAX relief. If you received last month’s letter from me, you would recall our goal of trying to raise $25,000.00 for Children’s Hospitals of California. But – we need your help, and I believe you can benefit from the TAX relief.
Just down the street from where I am typing this, Children’s Hospital has a whole house of kids fighting for their lives. For them and their parents’ taxes are not “top of mind,” health is. Living is. Surviving is. As you may have heard, Children’s is front and center in the fight against nasty diseases that destroy or cut short the lives of kids. We are thankful to have such a fantastic facility close by, doing such great work to help heal and save young people. So even though we are trying to figure out how much we owe the taxman, many are simply hoping they can be here to actually pay taxes. So we here at Entar have resolved to do what we can to help.
Please know that my team and I are eager to help anyone you know wanting to make a move. So much so that we are willing to make an offer that your referrals will LOVE – AND – the Kids at Children’s Hospital will love too.
Your referrals help the kids!
If you or a friend are thinking about selling, make sure to choose a real estate company you can trust! A real estate company with experience, proven results, and a give-back philosophy!
We’ve added CHOC and Valley Children’s to our charities!
AND REMEMBER… Your referrals help the Kids…
We are on a mission to raise $25,000 for CHLA, CHOC and Valley Children’s. We do this by donating a portion of our income from homes we sell. As you know, Children’s Hospital does great work in helping kids fight through and survive nasty life-threatening diseases like cancer, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia and others. They also lead the way in helping kids come back from spinal cord injuries as well as early diagnosis of autism. Last year alone, Children’s helped over 1,000,000 kids right here in Califrornia. BUT, Children’s relies on sponsorships and donations to provide their elite level of care, and to keep families’ expenses to a minimum. So YOUR REFERRALS REALLY DO HELP THE KIDS…
Who do you know considering buying or selling a home you could refer to my real estate sales team?
Not only will they benefit from our award-winning service, but you can rest assured we are also donating to a very worthy cause.
Go Serve Big!!! Investing in the Children of California.
A Real Estate Company that Gives Back!
Children’s Hospital leads the way in serving kids one patient at a time.
We are still boldly on a mission to raise $25,000 for Children’s Hospital, and we are making progress! We do this by donating to them a portion of our income from homes we sell. As you know, CHLA does AMAZING work in helping kids fight through and survive nasty diseases like cancer, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia, and others. They also lead the way in many other fields.
They can provide this care and keep patient costs to a minimum due to donations and sponsorships. We are proud to support the Children’s Hospitals!
As in the attached story, Children’s Hospital provides the best pediatric medical care available anywhere in the country. To do that, CHLA needs donations to continue its leading-edge care. We proudly donate a portion of our income from real estate sales to CHLA, CHOC and Valley Children’s to help them continue serving the needs of those who most need it in our California!
Who do you know considering buying or selling a home you could refer to our real estate sales team? Not only will they benefit from our award-winning real estate service, but a very worthy cause will also benefit as well. To refer anyone considering buying or selling a home just give me a call or pass on my number. 213-880-9910.
Thank you in advance for your referrals!
You and your referrals mean more than ever to my team and me. As we move forward thru this winter, please know we are extremely thankful for you and you being a special part of our business.
Go Serve Big!!! — Corey Chambers
Entar® Real Estate and Investment Technologies!
P.S. I copied and pasted the story below from the CHLA website. It better tells the story of the work they are doing.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
As a leading charitable hospital, CHLA depends on sponsorships and donations to continue its leading-edge service. We proudly donate a portion of our income from real estate sales to Children’s Hospitals to help them continue serving the needs of those who most need it in California!
A real estate company with experience, proven results, and a give-back philosophy!
Over the years of helping many families sell their homes and/or buy another, we have met some wonderful, loving, caring people. People like you! So your referrals can rest assured that, not only will they get the award-winning service we are known for and the guarantee to back it up, but that a solid portion of the income we receive will go toward helping the kids.
Refer your friends, neighbors, associates or family members considering making a move:
You can go to www.ReferralsHelpKids.com and enter their contact info on line or forward the link to someone you know considering a move.
Of course, you can always call me direct as well at 213-880-9910
Why I support Childrenʼs Hospitals
I grew up right here in the Greater Los Angeles Area, born in Los Angeles County at St. Francis Hospital. I remember when I first heard about a young person close to our family suffering from a nasty disease and getting treated for that at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. It was then that I began to pay closer attention to the work they do at that hospital. Since then, I have learned that it is a collection of hard-working health care professionals, most making their home right here in the Los Angeles area, all coming together for a common cause. That cause is to help young people overcome unfortunate health issues that life sometimes throws our way. Being a California native, I take pride in supporting in a way that I can do the good work these people do at Children’s. Since I’ve spent so many years in Orange County and helped so many home sellers in the Central Valley, I’ve added CHOC and Valley Children’s as recipients of our charitable work. My team rallies around our annual goal of raising money and donating portions of our income to help Children’s in their quest to heal young people when they need healing. My team and I are committed to providing outstanding results for buyers and sellers referred to us by our past clients. I have discovered that Children’s Hospital shares a similar commitment to their patients. And since their services survive on sponsorships and donations, we are happy to contribute and proud to support them.
Sincerely,
Corey Chambers
“CHLA Had All the Answers:” Catalina’s Journey with Cloacal Exstrophy
The hospital’s Colorectal and Pelvic Anomalies Center provides highly specialized care for the rarest and most complex congenital birth defects.
As a hospital nurse, Jeanette generally believes she’s “seen it all.”
Jeanette (right) and 3-year-old Catalina, 2026
But when her daughter Catalina was born with a rare variant of cloacal malformation called a covered cloacal exstrophy, she was shocked to learn that the condition is something most medical professionals only read about in textbooks.
Affecting 1 in around every 400,000 babies, cloacal exstrophy (also called OEIS syndrome) is a congenital birth defect that affects the formation of multiple digestive, urinary, and reproductive organs.
Expertise for conditions like Catalina’s is scarce—and seeking medical care from centers with limited experience can lead to greater complications down the line.
So many others have told me how long it took to find the answers for their child. For us, we had the answers every step of the way. — Jeanette, Catalina’s mom
Specialized expertise for colorectal and pelvic anomalies
Today, Catalina is a happy, energetic 3-year-old. She continues to receive multidisciplinary care at CHLA while thriving at home.
Christopher Gayer, MD, PhD
The family recently celebrated 6 months without a hospital stay—a milestone that felt impossible when Catalina was younger.
As an infant, Catalina underwent a series of complex reconstructive procedures led by Christopher Gayer, MD, PhD, Chief of Pediatric Surgery, and a team of specialists across neurosurgery, urology, and gastroenterology.
“Patients with these conditions require a tremendous amount of hospital resources throughout their lives—resources many hospitals can’t provide at the level needed,” Dr. Gayer explains.
“That’s why we’re here. We’ve invested the time, resources, and developed the expertise for kids just like Catalina.”
Understanding cloacal malformation and exstrophy
During the embryo stage of pregnancy, the digestive, urinary, and reproductive tracts initially form a single channel, called a cloaca. In babies with cloacal malformation, the cloaca never forms into three distinct channels.
Organs like the colon and bladder may be underdeveloped, and with exstrophy, some organs are exposed outside the abdominal wall. Other times, as with Catalina, the exstrophy is covered by skin.
Many babies with cloacal malformation can also have issues with their spine. Catalina’s spinal cord was attached to surrounding tissue and unable to move freely as a newborn—a condition called tethered cord syndrome.
A complex diagnosis
It was during a routine, 20-week ultrasound that Jeanette’s local care team first noticed anomalies. Their first guess was that Catalina may have a bladder obstruction.
Dr. Gayer notes that cloacal malformation can often be misdiagnosed, as the lower abdominal organs are extremely tiny in fetal patients and can be hard to see using ultrasound or MRI.
At 28 weeks, Jeanette was referred to a specialty hospital in L.A. to attempt in-utero surgery for the bladder obstruction—but the surgery was unsuccessful, and Jeanette went into early labor. She stayed in the hospital and delivered Catalina two weeks later.
Specialists explained to Jeanette that what they saw in-utero wasn’t a bladder obstruction, but cloacal malformation. Catalina would need to be transferred to the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation Newborn and Infant Critical Care Unit, CHLA’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), for multispecialty care.
Staged surgical reconstruction
Catalina’s condition required a staged treatment approach, Dr. Gayer explains.
Jeanette and Catalina in the NICU, 2023
First, it was critical to protect her kidneys by ensuring her body could eliminate waste. Within 24 hours of being born, she had her first surgery, an ileostomy, which allowed her small intestine to bypass her colon during digestion.
Additional procedures would need to wait until Catalina was a few months old. Capturing precise measurements is essential to determining which organs need minimal intervention and which require full reconstruction.
“These measurements are extremely small,” adds Dr. Gayer. “We’re talking 2 to 3 centimeters in total.” When necessary, CHLA’s Interventional Radiology team can help conduct a state-of-the-art 3D Cloacagram which provides the highest fidelity imaging possible.
Shared decision making for personalized care
Even equipped with advanced imaging, Catalina’s surgical team needed to be prepared for surprises when it was time to operate. “Surgery for cloacal malformation requires all surgical specialties in the operating room together,” says Dr. Gayer.
During the operation, he explains, the team discovered additional anomalies that required an adjusted plan and timeline: “Our collective experience with complex cases enabled us to pivot, while still ensuring the strongest long-term outcomes for Catalina.”
Throughout all the unknowns of Catalina’s care, what stood out to Jeanette was how thorough the clinical team was in explaining each step of treatment. “I’m a nurse myself—and the way CHLA clinicians talk to their patients is unparalleled. They spend so much time with each family. They deeply care about what you have to say and never rush the conversation. It’s very refreshing.”
Life at home
Jeanette and her husband Edgar spent their first few months with Catalina in survival mode. “I was just trying to get her home,” Jeanette recalls. “We were discharged from the NICU when Catalina was 2 months old, and I felt like I was finally able to absorb what we went through.”
“The NICU nurses always helped us do skin-to-skin in the hospital,” she reflects, “But there was something so special about being in our own home at 2 a.m.—watching her touch her face, turn to her side, make baby noises… Those little moments helped me understand that we were going to be okay.”
Long term management
“The most important thing for families to know is that once reconstructive surgeries are done—usually around 1 year—that is by no means the end of our journey together,” explains Dr. Gayer. “It’s really only the beginning.”
Catalina prepares for her first flight, 2024
Long-term care for Catalina includes regular visits to CHLA—often, two-hour appointments where she meets with specialists in urology, gastroenterology, colorectal anomalies, and eventually pediatric gynecology to ensure her organs stay functional and infection-free.
She also sees the Intestinal Rehabilitation Team; a specialized group of social workers, psychologists, and occupational, physical, and nutritional therapists. This team helps Catalina eat and absorb nutrients assisted by an ileostomy bag, as well as digest her food and eliminate waste.
The core focus of this multidisciplinary care is empowering Catalina to focus on being a kid—being active and playing (Jeanette notes that no CHLA visit is complete without a trip to the playground), going to school, and socializing with her peers.
The fact that we have everyone in one place for all Catalina’s health needs is major—with people who’ve seen and treated everything before. I don’t think that would have been the case if we hadn’t come to CHLA. — Jeanette, Catalina’s mom
A bright future for Catalina
“We take everything one day at a time,” says Jeanette.
“Sometimes, it might feel like we take one step forward and two steps back. But then, we wake up and see how far we’ve come.”
“The fact that we have everyone in one place for all Catalina’s health needs is major—with people who’ve seen and treated everything before. I don’t think that would have been the case if we hadn’t come to CHLA,” Jeanette adds.
“So many others have told me how long it took to find the answers for their child. For us, we had the answers every step of the way.”
Prioritizing access for all
The Colorectal and Pelvic Anomalies Center recognizes that not all patients can make it to a specialty center like CHLA for care.
Catalina during one of her many hospital stays, 2024
“From surgery to long-term management, we want physicians and patient families to see us as a resource,” says Dr. Gayer. “Whether that means referring a patient to CHLA, being a sounding board for clinical decision making, or providing a second opinion, our team is here to help.”
Continued research is also essential to improving standards of care for conditions like cloacal malformation—but with so few patients, exceedingly rare diseases can be difficult to study.
That’s why CHLA helped form the Pediatric Colorectal and Pelvic Learning Consortium, a group of 15 global institutions that collaborate to expand research and education. “The consortium enables us to conduct multicenter studies that help improve care and safety across the globe,” Dr. Gayer adds.
“Providing the best care for children with rare and complex conditions requires the expertise of everyone.”
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