Meet Our Champions

When Brooklyn was born at Ascension Sacred Heart, her mom Chelsea never imagined the challenges ahead. Born with severe respiratory distress, Brooklyn was rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), where newborn screening revealed DiGeorge Syndrome. She was born without a thymus, a critical part of the immune system. Without a transplant, even a common cold could be life-threatening. Placed in isolation at one week old, Brooklyn spent 3.5 years separated from other children. During a nine-month hospital stay as an infant, she underwent numerous surgeries. Refusing to give up, her care team at Studer Family Children’s Hospital helped Brooklyn become the first child in Florida, and the 99th in the U.S., to undergo an experimental thymus transplant. Now eight, Brooklyn is thriving, living a once thought impossible life. Chelsea says, “The staff didn’t just care for Brooklyn, they cared for me too. They became family.”