UCMG physicians and CHLA operate the largest pediatric emergency medical transport system in the U.S. - each year it brings to CHLA by air or ground transport 2,000 children whose cases are too complex for other facilities. While the majority of transport patients come from the immediate community, many also come from all over the mainland U.S. and Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the South Pacific. UCMG neonatologists at CHLA, who operate the hospital's 28-bed Newborn Intensive Care Unit, have developed or improved many of the innovative techniques for the care of newborns in jeopardy that are now the standard practice. UCMG neonatologists also provide services at LAC+USC Medical Center, Hospital of the Good Samaritan, Queen of Angels/Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and San Gabriel Valley Medical Center. The West Coast's first pediatric open heart surgery was performed at CHLA in 1949 by surgeon John C. Jones, M.D., a feat echoed in 1993 when Vaughn Starnes, M.D. and a team of surgeons from The Heart Institute at CHLA performed the world's first double lung lobe transplant from living parents to their daughter, a cystic fibrosis patient. UCMG surgeons at CHLA now perform about 500 open heart surgeries every year. The only Level I trauma center in the Los Angeles Area solely for children is located at CHLA, which has also been designated a "regional pediatric trauma center" by the American College of Surgeons, a designation granted to less than a dozen centers in the United States. This gives the Southland a critical resource for seriously injured children and more than 25% of all children in Los Angeles County who suffer trauma injuries are brought to CHLA. One of only two lifesaving ECMO (extra corporeal membrane oxygenation) units in Los Angeles County is at CHLA. Hundreds of children with certain critical heart-lung conditions are treated with ECMO and go on to lead healthy lives. This amazing technology reverses a 90% mortality rate to a 90% survival rate. UCMG physician Donald Kohn, M.D. led a team that performed the world's first transfer of a healthy gene into the umbilical cord blood cells of a newborn to correct a genetic defect detected in utero. The breakthough is expected to help eradicate genetic diseases like Gaucher's disease, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, leukemia, hemophilia B, HIV infections and malignant pediatric brain tumors. CHLA's Craniofacial and Cleft Program is one of the nation's busiest (about 4,660 patient visits and 775 surgeries per year) and UCMG plastic and reconstructive surgeons make up one of the largest single groups of pediatric plastic and reconstructive surgeons in the country. The surgeons, physicians and other health care providers take a multidisciplinary approach allowing them to correct many genetic malformations and traumatic injuries of the face, eyes, ears, skin, jaws and teeth. Treatment includes specialized therapies for hearing, speech and emotional issues. In 1973, CHLA's Richard Fine, M.D., inaugurated the first use anywhere of hemodialysis for children with end stage renal disease and built the first device for children. Now CHLA houses one of the country's largest pediatric dialysis units. The Childrens Center for Cancer & Blood Diseases at CHLA is the largest such center in the western United States and UCMG physicians at the center see between 300 and 450 newly diagnosed patients per year, with more than 2,500 patients on active follow-up. UCMG physicians at CHLA operate the most comprehensive treatment center in California for patients with spina bifida. UCMG physicians treat the largest population of infants, children and adolescents with HIV/AIDS and pediatric hemophilia in the western United States. The Childrens AIDS Center was established at CHLA in 1984 as California's first pediatric HIV/AIDS program. The innovative division of Adolescent Medicine is a national prototype of integrated medical and psychological care for adolescents. UCMG physicians have developed one of the most comprehensive programs for adolescent medicine on the West Coast, addressing issues like high-risk and homeless youth, drugs, teen pregnancies, juvenile prostitution and AIDS education. The High Risk Youth Program, originally funded by the noted Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 1982, is a ground-breaking achievement that has succeeded in consolidating a number of existing treatment resources, increasing access and awareness among the target population and developing a staff of professionals specifically trained to deal with the needs of high-risk adolescents in the community. CHLA's comprehensive epilepsy center was the first in Southern California to combine research, specialized surgery and clinical care with aggressive psychosocial counseling to help children and their parents better deal with epilepsy. UCMG physicians provide photodynamic therapy, a unique treatment for eye cancer and one that is only available at a limited number of pediatric facilities nationally. UCMG physicians and CHLA operate one of the largest pediatric clinical genetics programs in the United States. UCMG physicians in the Department of Radiology perform approximately 89,000 diagnostic imaging studies per year, including radiography, fluoroscopy, ultrasound, computed tomography, magnetic resonance and nuclear radiology. The specialty of pediatric rheumatology was born in 1966 at CHLA and UCMG faculty members have trained 25 percent of all pediatric rheumatologists in the country. Today, the physicians in the Division of Rheumatology treat about 250 outpatients per month for juvenile arthritis, lupus, dermatomyositis, scleroderma, acute rheumatic fever, reflex neurovascular dystrophy, etc. The Division of Pulmonology, which includes the largest cystic fibrosis center in the western United States, is the only full-service pediatric pulmonology program in an area bounded by Orange County, Las Vegas and Palo Alto. In addition to treating genetic and acquired disorders of the lungs and respiratory systems of children at CHLA, UCMG pulmonologists also see patients in San Luis Obispo, Pomona and the San Fernando Valley. UCMG physicians treat one of the largest number of child abuse cases in California. In 1991, a team of researchers led by UCMG hematologist-oncologist Robert Seeger, M.D., determined that bone marrow can be removed from patients, purged of cancerous tumor cells and returned to the patient for healthy regrowth, a huge milestone in the treatment of certain cancer and blood diseases. CHLA established the first rehabilitation center in Los Angeles dedicated specifically to the needs of children. UCMG orthopedic surgeons and oncologists were key innovators in the development of limb implants for the treatment of bone cancer, saving many bone cancer patients from amputations or death from cancer. UCMG physicians in the Hemophilia Comprehensive Care program provide care to more than 250 people with hemophilia and other coagulation disorders. In addition, the program is a regional center for the compilation of data on pediatric hemophilia cases in the western states (including Hawaii). In 1995, UCMG physicians in the Division of Infectious Diseases cared for more than 1,000 hospitalized transplant and immunocompromised children with complex, multi-resistant bacterial and fungal infections and consulted on more than 400 cases around the state of California. In addition to its inpatient units, CHLA houses 33 specialty outpatient clinics, together handling nearly 200,000 patient visits per year. Of these 200,000 visits, nearly 56,000 are to the Emergency Department of the George C. Page Community Health Center. CHLA has the best-equipped and largest Pediatric Intensive Care Unit on the West Coast. Return to menu