Keona & Children's Hospital are Extraordinary Together

Here at Children’s Hospital New Orleans, our patients are extraordinary! Just take three-year-old Keona, who spent her first days of life in neonatal intensive care. Within two weeks of being released, she suffered a traumatic injury that caused a severe brain bleed, broken ribs, and fractured legs. Baby Keona spent the next month on life support at Children’s Hospital New Orleans.

Because of severe damage to her trachea, her only hope for breathing again was a tracheotomy, a surgically placed incision in the airway that allowed her to breathe. 

The Department of Children and Family Services of Louisiana reached out to a foster family, the Mocks, in 2015 and asked if we they were willing to take a medically fragile baby that would require extensive medical training in airway management. Tammy Mock knew that God had been preparing her and her husband for a little girl that would need them in a special way. That’s why they took Keona in, and adopted her in August of 2017.

In December 2017, Children’s Hospital surgeons performed another complex procedure on Keona, using her own ribs to graft a trachea so she would no longer need a tracheostomy to breathe. She was kept medically sedated during the first ten days until the grafts healed. Under intense medical supervision, Keona had to meet several milestones before she could be cleared to return home to completely heal.

Children’s Hospital breathed new life into Keona, and now she shines bright with her infectious smile and personality. Because of donors and supporters, like you, stories like Keona’s are brought to life everyday at Children’s Hospital. Here, we believe in healthcare with heart, and we invite you to be a part of our story.

At Children’s Hospital, our promise is to shape a better tomorrow for kids like Keona. For more than 60 years, we have delivered on that promise, providing expert pediatric care for Louisiana’s children. In 2017 Children’s Hospital embarked on it’s largest expansion project to date, but the physical campus isn’t the only part of Children’s Hospital that’s changing. 

We’re building innovative programs and investing in technology and research, expanding access, and recruiting some of the nation’s top pediatric providers to tackle some of the significant health challenges our kids and communities are facing. Our children, like Keona, are our future and we will not accept anything less than extraordinary when it comes to their health outcomes. With the Campaign for Louisiana's Children, we are building a healthier future for all children. We need you! Let’s be extraordinary together. Learn more about the campaign >>