, which supported the program at its inception in 2014, has extended that support through 2026 with a new grant for $5.5 million over five years.

Children in the clinical and research programs of the Center for Pediatric NeuroRecovery are treated with innovative, science-based therapies such as activity-based locomotor training, neuromuscular electrical stimulation and transcutaneous spinal stimulation. These therapies have led to improved strength, abilities and overall health for the children in ways their families thought would not be possible.

“We went from feeling hopeless to hopeful after just one conversation with Dr. Behrman,” said Kylee Hoelscher who, with her husband and older daughter, moved from California to Louisville in 2016 so their then-6-year-old daughter Eden could continue therapy.

“This is the only program in the world that offers hope for children with a spinal cord injury,” Hoelscher said. “When she started, Eden could not even sit up on her own and attended school at home. Now she goes to school independently and has sleepovers with friends. She rock climbs. She plays tennis. What they’re doing for her is life-changing.”

“We are grateful to Kosair Charities for their continued support for the Center for Pediatric NeuroRecovery, a remarkable program that gives hope for recovery to children with spinal cord injuries – hope and care they can find almost nowhere else,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapdudi. “This support, along with that of other pediatric research and clinical care programs at UofL, will help us fulfill our commitment to advancing our health, not only for children in Louisville and Kentucky, but the world over.”

In addition to the multi-year, $5.5 million in new funding for pediatric neurorecovery, Kosair Charities has designated $900,000 this year for other pediatric programs at UofL:

• $475,000 for the , led by Melissa Currie, professor of pediatrics, to support education, research and advocacy to help curb all forms of child maltreatment.
• $225,000 to purchase cardiorespiratory monitors at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, led by Tonya Robinson. These cardiorespiratory monitors provide real-time and trended vital signs, allowing for a comprehensive evaluation of an infant’s current status and of changes occurring before a devastating event. The monitors assist in determining the causes of medical events and help prevent them from happening again.
• $200,000 for pediatric cancer immunotherapy research at , directed by Jason Chesney, that will allow the center to build on the cancer immunotherapy drug discovery work begun in 2020 that already has revealed new small-molecule inhibitors.

“Everything we do is for children, whether it be with spinal cord injuries, cancer, those born prematurely, or vulnerable – every child who has specialized needs – they are the motivation behind everything we do,” said Keith Inman, president of Kosair Charities. “There’s no better investment than the children in our community, and we simply cannot do this work without partners like the University of Louisville. The partnership of UofL and Kosair Charities helps ensure so many children have the healthiest lives possible.”

At the Center for Pediatric NeuroRecovery, the funding from Kosair Charities will support further advances in therapy for children with spinal cord injury, as well as research and training for future researchers and providers. It also will enable the program to accept younger and medically complex children, develop a teen-focused, recovery-based program and study neuromodulation, a way to stimulate the spinal cord and improve mobility and health.

“Children with spinal cord injury are at risk for multiple medical and health complications. This grant from Kosair will allow us to expand our focus to improve areas of their health beyond movement,” Behrman said. “This will not only get these children physically better, but help them have a healthy life.”

The Madson family also relocated to Louisville for this program, moving from the Minneapolis area to ensure their son Luke could continue the therapy, based at .

“The more Luke moves, the more alive he is,” Sarah Madson said of her now-2-year-old son, who was the youngest child to start the program at 15 months. “When we arrived, he was crawling on the ground, maybe doing little circles, with no forward movement. He is now walking in a walker everywhere and engaging with the world. This program has meant everything to us.”

The grant announced today brings Kosair Charities’ total support for the center to $13 million.

In April, UofL and Kosair Charities celebrated a milestone of topping $50 million in gifts from Kosair Charities to UofL since 1982. The grants announced today bring that total to $56.8 million.

“My husband and I constantly say, ‘how were we not more scared than we were?’ It’s because the NICU nurses and doctors were just unbelievable,” said Coulter, who had never been a patient of UofL before her delivery. “The doctors and nurses were amazing and they were there for us non-stop. It was not like any experience I ever had with doctors or nurses before. It was the best experience it could possibly be under the worst possible circumstances.”

Coulter’s family and others were celebrated at UofL Hospital’s first NICU reunion on Oct. 12. The event brought together former patients, their families and the medical staff who cared for the infants.

UofL Hospital’s Level III NICU provides care to more than 400 infants and their families each year. The patient population is diverse, representing numerous ethnicities and a spectrum of families from various socioeconomic backgrounds. Infants admitted to the NICU are treated for a variety of non-surgical disorders with a focus on neonatal nutrition, treatment of infants with drug withdrawal and care of extremely premature infants.

Coulter, who lives in Spencer County, had planned to deliver Samantha and Samuel in her hometown of Cincinnati, but going into early labor on Sept. 24, 2018, brought her to UofL Hospital by ambulance.

She was in labor for four days before delivering the babies by C-section. Delaying the delivery as long as possible allowed Coulter to be infused with magnesium and steroids, which supported the babies’ brain and lung development. They weighed a little more than 2 pounds each at birth.

After Coulter was discharged, she and Travis spent every day the next two months driving an hour each way from their rural home to visit the twins. Nurses would wait for them to arrive, staying past their shifts to give Coulter updates in person.  

Almost two months after giving birth, Coulter started having pain in her abdomen. One day while visiting her babies in the NICU, she stopped at the postpartum unit to ask if she needed to see a physician for the pain. As it turned out, she needed an emergency hysterectomy. Had she been home and not in the hospital, she could have been in danger of dying without the urgent surgical procedure.

It was Coulter’s birthday the day after surgery, and in her patient room at UofL Hospital, the NICU nurses brought her balloons and cards from Samantha and Samuel that had their tiny footprints on them.

“The NICU at UofL Hospital considers the whole health of the family – physically, mentally, emotionally and financially. They’re there for you before you ask them to be,” Coulter said.

Kay developed HELLP syndrome, a life-threatening pregnancy complication, and delivered her son, William, via cesarean section at 29 weeks. The baby spent nearly two months in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at UofL Hospital’s Center for Women & Infants.

Kay wrote and illustrated a children’s book about her experience with a baby in the NICU titled “Little Alfredo the Green Tomato.”

Read the full story at .

Jaclyn had been on bed rest at the hospital for 10 weeks after going into labor at 22 weeks. She delivered Luca on Oct. 1, 2017, at 32 weeks, and he stayed in the NICU for a month.

Jaclyn says she had a unique experience at the Center for Women and Infants at UofL Hospital. She worked with a music therapist to write songs for her baby and visited with a therapy dog to ease her anxiety.

“I had a daily a routine, and the weeks passed quickly,” she said.

“The staff did so much to spoil us and make the season of Halloween with our son special despite being in the NICU,” Jacyln said. “Thanks to the staff, we have fond memories of what could have been a very difficult time for our family.”

She received a Halloween card with Luca’s footprint, and a group of volunteers who knit costumes for the NICU babies made him a sock monkey outfit with his name and birthdate.

“It was a gift you don’t expect that means so much, and we treasure that,” she said.

As a way to pay it forward, Jaclyn launched a fundraiser this year to fill enough Halloween baskets for every family in the NICU. Filled with candy and care items like tissues and lotion, she delivered the baskets in time to make it a special Halloween for those in a similar circumstance.

“We can’t believe it has been a year – they did so much for us while we were here and we are glad to bring cheer to others,” Jaclyn said.

Instead of receiving presents, they told their friends to buy gifts for premature and seriously ill infants in the neonatal intensive care unit at the UofL Center for Women & Infants.

The twins recently delivered soft blankets, stuffed animals and gift cards to the unit and personally gave some gifts to parents visiting their babies.

“He looks like a baby doll,” one of the twins said when they met a baby weighing only 4 pounds.

Pauline Hayes, manager of the NICU, told the girls, “You have no idea how much our babies and their families will appreciate this. The blankets will help keep them warm while their parents hold them.”

The UofL Center for Women & Infants at UofL Hospital offers a Level III NICU, one of the largest in the region, providing care for premature and seriously ill infants. 

The babies and their families also got a visit from Santa Claus.

“It’s just joy, that’s the season. We are here at Christmas and it’s just the joy of giving and that’s what we do,” said Carrie Schmidt, from the Happy Stitchers.

See more about the NICU and the Happy Stitchers in the video below.

As he hummed, he carefully monitored 11-day-old William Receveur, who was born six weeks early and weighs just 3.2 pounds. 

He paused to give Amy Rodgers Smith, another music therapist from Morgantown, West Virginia, lessons on how to introduce massage with the music and gauge William’s response, especially for signs of distress.

But on this day, baby William was a happy listener.

“As we moved forward … you could just feel him melt into me a little bit more, his whole body relaxed and he made more consistent eye contact and we got a few smiles from him and these little rumbles they call purrs and that’s a sign of positive interaction and relaxation,” said Rodgers Smith.

And that’s what music therapists are hoping to achieve with preemies like William, a state of relaxation that can help them adapt to the outside world.

“Babies born prematurely have difficulty regulating what is happening to them in their environment,” said Darcy DeLoach, director of Music Therapy at UofL. “Music, as an intervention, provides a very structured way for the brain to process another layer of input while staying calm. So we’re teaching premature babies how to regulate what’s happening to them when they get a bath, when they’re being held, or when they’re seeing lights or hearing sounds. Music calms them and allows them to see pleasure around them. Then they’re able to tolerate whatever the next thing is in their schedule better.”    

Research has shown that music therapy for premature babies can ultimately reduce reliance on medication, decrease the length of time in the hospital and promote brain development.

DeLoach said music therapy is increasingly recognized as a treatment option for premature babies and babies who were exposed to drugs in utero, a problem that has worsened in the region with the recent heroin epidemic.

Last week, DeLoach and Detmer provided special training for 12 music therapists from the U.S. and Canada who want to learn how to help preemies with music therapy. The training was offered through the National Institute for Infant & Child Medical Music Therapy in partnership with Florida State University. The institute, now in its 15th year, was held in Louisville for the first time at Norton Healthcare.

Rodgers Smith, an institute participant, said NICU music therapy currently isn’t an option in her home state of West Virginia.

“I hope to start the education process there,” she said. “Hopefully I can take what I’ve learned back and demonstrate the value.”

Lee Receveur, mom of baby William, said learning ways to help calm her child and recognize his stress signs has been beneficial. And, it helps alleviate feelings of helplessness while waiting to go home. 

“It’s another opportunity to spend time with him and work with him,” she said.

Check out a video about the music therapy training: