Patients at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Miami Transplant Institute first in nation to receive custom-made hospital gowns

For more than two decades, Miami fashion designer René Ruiz has designed glamorous gowns that have been worn by celebrities and well-known public figures at red carpet events, galas, and runway shows. Each gown Ruiz makes is designed with the individual in mind with touches inspired by Miami’s rich culture that have been represented in the fashion industry worldwide.

A few years ago, Ruiz began dedicating more time to philanthropy, giving back to the community that has helped grow his brand RENÉ BY RR.

Developing Recovery Gowns for Miami Transplant Institute

That concept was later solidified following an encounter at a local charity event where he met Matthew Pinzur, chief marketing officer at Jackson Health System. The two discussed a collaboration that would allow Ruiz to use his fashion insight to create gowns of a different kind: custom-made hospital gowns for transplant patients recovering from complex surgeries.

Over the course of several months, Ruiz met with representatives from the Miami Transplant Institute (MTI), Jackson leadership, transplant nurses, and post-transplant patients. He learned about their experiences and listened to their recommendations on what it would take to transform a standard hospital gown into a more practical, comfortable gown for this patient population. Among the suggestions was adding snaps and slits in appropriate locations, allowing easier access for the medical teams to check surgical incisions and equipment, such as drains and heart monitors.

Implementation at the Miami Transplant Institute

Ruiz took all of these suggestions to the drawing board and started designing. He researched fabrics that would be comfortable and easily laundered. The result: a denim-blue hospital gown with convenient button snaps and slits. The Miami Transplant Institute team welcomed the change, as did patients of all ages, saying the custom gowns – emblazoned with a JH for Jackson Health inside of Rene Ruiz’s signature red heart icon – are more comfortable and dignified than the standard hospital gown.

Impact and Future for Miami Transplant Institute

“When I witnessed the first patient wearing my design, it was an amazing moment – one of the highlights of my life,” said Ruiz. “It’s been an amazing project for me, this is so fulfilling. What could be better?”

To date, more than 4,000 gowns have been delivered to Jackson Memorial. For now, the gowns are being used exclusively for Miami Transplant Institute’s post-transplant patients.

Renowned fashion designer Rene Ruiz supports Jackson Health System’s mission through philanthropy. To find out how you can also become a supporter on projects like these at Jackson, contact the Jackson Health Foundation today at 305-585-GIVE (4483).

In August 2017, Karen Hunter-Jackson and her son were turning into the driveway of their home in Miami Gardens, when a speeding motorcycle crashed into them. The motorcycle’s gas tank exploded, sending flames running under Hunter-Jackson’s car.

“The first thing that came to my mind was ‘Stop, Drop and Roll,’” remembers Hunter-Jackson. “This is was the lesson I learned in grade school.”

She and son ran through the fire to escape the burning car. She was wearing shorts and sandals and suffered burns up to 30 percent of her body. Her son was not hurt. The driver of the motorcycle was killed on impact.

Hunter-Jackson was immediately rushed to the Miami Burn Center, where she was treated for burns on both legs and her right arm. She underwent a series of skin grafts to her legs and arm, and was released from the hospital two months later.

“In the months I spent at the Miami Burn Center, I became family with most of the doctors, nurses, techs, rehab and occupational therapists,” said Hunter-Jackson. “I couldn’t have asked for a better experience under those circumstances.”

Hunter-Jackson, who underwent physical therapy to learn how to walk again, is also an active member of the Burn Survivor Support Group at the Miami Burn Center.

She’s currently undergoing laser treatments at the Miami Burn Center, which will help minimize her scars, and improve her flexibility.

Hunter-Jackson expressed her gratitude during Burn Safety Festival at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

The Miami Burn Center in collaboration with City of Miami Fire Rescue and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue hosted the festival to raise awareness and educate the public about burn safety and prevention. The Burn Center is one of the leading, most comprehensive burn treatment centers in the nation, treating hundreds of patients – from babies to adults – each year.

“As good as the team is at taking care of burn injuries, the best thing, of course, is to prevent it from happening at all,” said Louis Pizano, medical director at Miami Burn Center

According to the American Burn Association (ABA), every year more than 450,000 serious burn injuries occur in the United States that require medical treatment.

Gerard Daphnis and Jermaine Chambers were top recruits in the University of Miami’s football program; they forged a strong friendship on the field, one that has withstood the test of time.

When Daphnis needed a lifesaving kidney transplant, Chambers secretly got tested to see if he was a compatible donor. Just days before Christmas 2018, he shared the results with Daphnis in a handwritten card: “I’m your guy – see you on January 10. #CanesForLife.”

“It took a few minutes for it to click,” Daphnis said. “Once it did, it was very emotional. For the first time in a long time, I felt like there was hope, a chance that I was going to be okay.”

The successful transplant surgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital was performed by Gaetano Ciancio, MD, MBA, FACS, the Miami Transplant Institute’s chief medical officer and director of the kidney and kidney-pancreas transplant programs, Mahmoud Morsi, MD, CPHQ, abdominal transplant surgeon, along with a multidisciplinary team.

“Everyone at Jackson, at the Miami Transplant Institute – they’re awesome,” said Chambers. “They all worked together to make this whole thing possible; they helped me save my friend’s life.”

The pair first met in 1992, soon after being recruited by UM. Chambers, a wide receiver from Homestead Senior High and Daphnis, a tight end from Miami Norland Senior High, were already making headlines in Sports Illustrated during their freshman year of college. They became fast friends as they both looked to make their mark on the football field and the world.

But shortly after graduation, Daphnis was diagnosed with diabetes. For several years, no one knew just how much his health had deteriorated. He subsequently started dialysis.

“It all started when I stepped on a nail while pouring a new driveway at my house,” recalls Daphnis. “I went to the ER, got a tetanus shot and went on my way. I thought I was okay.”

The injury led to several fractures and a serious infection that would not go away. He underwent two surgeries and a series of painful debridements – the medical removal of the dead and damaged tissue to save the healthy tissue remaining in his foot.

But the father of five was hit with even more bad news.

His foot was not getting better and one of the antibiotics he had been prescribed had further compromised his already damaged kidneys.

“My kidneys were functioning at about 60 percent before that,” recalls Daphnis. “Now they were down to 11 percent.”

Barely able to get around and in near-constant pain, Daphnis was retaining fluid. He ballooned to 410 pounds.

“I felt like a cross between Frankenstein and the Michelin man,” he said. “I had difficulty walking and difficulty breathing.”

His health issues led to his foot being amputated. Five-hour sessions of dialysis – three times a week – were keeping him alive. Doctors determined his best chance at survival was a kidney transplant.

That is when Daphnis learned about the Living Donor Kidney Program at the Miami Transplant Institute, an affiliation between Jackson Health System and UHealth – University of Miami Health System, the second largest transplant center in the United States.

After undergoing testing, his wife Harriett had been deemed a potential match. But she was later rejected as a donor. Months later, a friend also offered to be a donor, but was also determined not to be a viable match.

“That really took a lot out of me,” Daphnis said. “It was a tough pill to swallow.”

Around the same time, Chambers reached out to Harriett and expressed interest in being the donor. As he went through the necessary testing, they decided not to tell Daphnis.

“We didn’t want to get his hopes up and disappoint him,” said Chambers. “He’d already been through so much.”

But Chambers turned out to be the perfect match.

Today, Chambers, 45, and Daphnis, 44, are both healthy and have become advocates for organ donation.

During April’s National Donate Life Month, both Daphnis and Chambers were speakers at the annual Miami Transplant Institute reunion event at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where transplant survivors share their stories of how transplantation has impacted their lives in the hopes of promoting the importance of becoming an organ donor.

Nearly 200 attendees, including former patients, doctors, and transplant staff, attended the dinner.

“They’re the best doctors in the world,” chimed in Daphnis. “And Jermaine is my hero, even if he doesn’t like me to say that.”

By Alana J. Arnold, MD, MBA
Medical Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Jackson North Medical Center
Affiliated Assistant Professor, Dept. of Pediatrics
UM Miller School of Medicine

Summer is here! Kids are out of school. It’s time to start having fun! While summer means more time outdoors swimming, bike riding, and visiting playgrounds, it’s also a time for parents and caregivers to be extra alert. Outdoor play, hot weather, and water activities present potential threats to you and your child. Your family can help avoid a trip to the emergency room this summer by following these simple safety tips.

Staying Safe While Biking

• Bike riding is exercise and fun all rolled into one, but ultimately, safety is most important.
• Be sure to use headlights, taillights, and reflectors when you and your family ride at night.
• Prevent head injuries by wearing a helmet, every single time. Remember, it’s the law!
• Follow all traffic rules by paying close attention to traffic signals, signs, and street or sidewalk markings.
• Ride single file. Don’t ride side by side on the road with your family. This behavior is dangerous and could result in injury.

Swimming Safety

• Swimming is fun. But remember that kids, whether in or out of the water, need to be supervised at all times, even if they know how to swim.
• An adult should be designated to supervise the kids and have EYES on the children, at all times
• Only use FDA-approved floating devices for all toddlers and children
• If you and your family are swimming in public areas, be sure to obey all rules and posted signs.
• Don’t swim during a thunderstorm or lightning storm.
• Only swim in pools and at beaches protected by an on-duty lifeguard.

Staying Safe in the Sun

• The sun is strongest between the hours of 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Do your best to stay out of direct sunlight during those hours.
• For children over six months of age, use sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher.
• Always apply sunscreen at least 30-45 minutes before going outside. Then reapply it every two hours.
• Be sure to use sunscreen even if it’s cloudy or you’re in a shaded area.
• Remember that babies less than six months of age should not be exposed to the sun.

Bug Bite Safety

• Use a safe insect repellant with ingredients that include DEET, citronella, and soybean oil.
• Avoid areas where bugs and flies congregate, such as gardens with flowers.
• Avoid getting insect repellent into your eyes and mouth. Spray repellent on your hands first and then carefully rub it on your skin.
• The worst time for bugs is in the early morning and early evening. Stay indoors or wear long-sleeved, light-colored shirts during those times.

Staying Safe Around Fireworks

• Talk to your child about how to stay safe around fireworks and go over the potential dangers.
• Children should NEVER play with fireworks. Only adults should be responsible for lighting them.
• Be sure to keep sparklers away from your family’s clothing, face, and hair.
• Don’t point or throw fireworks at anyone, ever. Remember to keep fireworks away from your home, brush, and leaves.

A lifesaving liver transplant gives 16-month-old Danilia a second chance at life.

When Danilia “Amor” Aquino was born prematurely at 26 weeks in Orlando on August 26, 2019, she was showing early signs of liver disease. Two months later – at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – she was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a rare, genetic, life-threatening liver disease that only appears in infants.

The medical team at Danilia’s local hospital performed the Kasai procedure – considered one of the most effective treatments of this disease – in which any problematic bile ducts outside the liver are removed, and the small intestine is attached to the liver. Unfortunately, the procedure was unsuccessful.

Danilia began to have complications and was intubated for 54 days. Her parents turned to their trusted gastrointestinal (GI) doctor in Orlando who advised the family to have Danilia evaluated for a transplant at the Miami Transplant Institute (MTI), a joint program between Jackson Health System and UHealth – the University of Miami Health System.

“None of our children have had any medical conditions,” said Danilia’s mother, Jennifer Cotto. “On top of the stresses of our sick newborn, the pandemic had just begun, and her father and I were getting married February 2020.”

At the beginning of 2020, the family met with Jennifer Garcia, MD, the Miami Transplant Institute’s medical director of pediatric transplant services. Danilia’s parents instantly connected with Dr. Garcia and the medical team, who had experience with these complex cases at MTI, the largest transplant center in the nation for the second year in a row, and among the top six for pediatric liver transplants.

“Danilia was extremely small (8.8 pounds) and undernourished as a result of not only her liver disease but her prematurity and bowel complications following her Kasai,” said Dr. Garcia. “She needed Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) – a procedure where fluids are given intravenously to provide her with the nutrients her body would need, in hopes that this would increase her chances for transplant candidacy.”

The family returned home with their newborn daughter just nine days before their wedding – a meaningful moment for them that they were able to share as a family.

Shortly after, Danilia experienced aggressive gastrointestinal bleed, common in patients of biliary atresia and liver failure. Danilia and her father were immediately airlifted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at Holtz Children’s Hospital at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center. Once she arrived, Asumthia Jeyapalan, DO, a University of Miami Health System pediatric critical care physician at Holtz Children’s, would join a multidisciplinary medical team to care for her. The team included doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists from transplant, intensive care, infection control, ear, nose and throat, nephrology, and neurosurgery.

“With COVID-19, we were facing many restrictions, and we were worried what would happen if a transplant patient would get the virus. There were so many unknowns,” said Dr. Jeyapalan. “Are we going to find a donor? From the ICU perspective, we needed to make sure she was going to tolerate transplant surgery.”

At Holtz Children’s, the approach is to practice family-centered care, which allowed the family to develop strong relationships with the medical team caring for their daughter. They also were an integral part of Danilia’s recovery, working closely with support departments in the hospital, including Child Life and Music Therapy.

“I think our entire team would agree that Danilia has shown incredible resilience and strength through the many life-threatening medical hurdles she has faced,” said Amanda Alladin, MD, a University of Miami Health System pediatric critical care physician in the Holtz Children’s PICU. “Her parents have been steadfastly at her side and have been true members of Danilia’s interdisciplinary team and we have tremendous respect and admiration for them as a family.”

During Danilia’s time in the intensive care unit at Holtz Children’s, her mother and father rotated shifts to always have a parent with her. In the span of a few short weeks, she faced infections, septic episodes, intubation, was on an oscillator, and needed dialysis for her kidneys – all situations that limited her chances of transplantation.

Eventually, she was listed on the national transplant list in April 2020.

But shortly after, she became extremely ill. Her chance of survival was less than 72 hours.

“That was difficult to hear,” recalls her father. “I spent the whole night holding her, as I cried, not knowing if she was going to make it.”

On June 16, just when her family began to lose hope, Danilia’s parents received the lifesaving call that a liver was available for their daughter.

“The nurse on shift and I hugged and cried. It was so amazing,” said her mother. “She was prepared for surgery, but we knew she was so sick going into transplant, that there was a chance she wouldn’t survive.”

She was in multi-organ failure before the transplant: her intestines were not working. Still, the MTI team took a chance on her.

Her liver transplant took place the next day, led by UHealth transplant surgeons Rodrigo Vianna, MD, PhD, director, Miami Transplant Institute and chief of liver, intestinal, and multivisceral transplant; Akin Tekin, MD, UHealth’s liver, intestinal and multivisceral surgeon; and Gennaro Selvaggi, MD, FACS, UHealth transplant surgeon.

After the 12-hour surgery, Danilia’s kidneys began to fail. Her family was devastated at the thought of another transplant.

Upon further evaluation, her medical team switched Danilia off her dialysis machine to a smaller machine meant for babies of her size. Though recovery was slow, Danilia got taken off dialysis 12 days before Christmas. The family considered this a “Christmas miracle.”

The recovery was slow, but Danilia’s kidneys began to function perfectly, she began breathing on her own, her nutrition improved, and her neurological development continued to maintain itself.

After 10 long months in the hospital, Danilia was finally ready to go home.

“She’s a miracle who has had to overcome many medical hurdles in her young life,” said
Jayanthi Chandar, MD, UHealth pediatric kidney transplant physician. “Seeing her go home is so heart-warming. Kudos to the parents whose optimism and perseverance played a big role in Danilia’s recovery.”

Upon discharge, 16-month-old Danilia received receive a special surprise visit from Mickey and Minnie Mouse outside of Holtz Children’s – signaling her return to their shared hometown in Orlando.

“She’s our miracle! We often questioned whether we were in the right place and if we were getting the care we needed,” Cotto said. “But today proves we were exactly where we needed to be.”

For pictures, interviews, and b-roll, visit https://bit.ly/3ooHa4M

Nicole Hannah-Edgecomb was 24 weeks pregnant with her second child when she went to see her obstetrician for a checkup. An ultrasound had already revealed that her baby had fluid around the heart. Four weeks later, another ultrasound showed a large mass was now covering the baby’s heart.

“At that point, my doctor realized the severity of my baby’s case,” Nicole said. “I was sent to another hospital to receive treatment, but that hospital, too, couldn’t handle my case. I was told my only hope was Jackson Memorial Hospital.”

At 29 weeks, Nicole was transferred to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she began receiving care from Salih Yasin, MD, UHealth – University of Miami Health System obstetrician/gynecologist, who specializes in high-risk pregnancies and the delivery of multiple babies.

Two weeks later, a multidisciplinary team of UHealth doctors and Jackson nurses prepared for a complex surgery to save the baby at Holtz Children’s Hospital at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center. On February 23, doctors performed a Cesarean section and delivered Symphony Harmony Edgecomb, a four-pound, four-ounce baby girl.

Immediately following the delivery, and in the same operating room, Eliot Rosenkranz, MD, a UHealth pediatric cardiac surgeon at Holtz Children’s, and his team performed an ex utero intrapartum treatment, also call an EXIT procedure, in which they opened the baby’s chest while she was still attached to her mother’s placenta.

The placenta provided Symphony with oxygenated blood from her mother, while doctors removed the fluid around her heart. They also removed the plum-size teratoma, or tumor, covering the heart, and immediately placed a tracheostomy tube to help her breathe. The tumor was crushing both of her lungs, which would have made survival outside the womb impossible.

Immediately following the two-hour surgery, Symphony was moved to Holtz Children’s pediatric intensive care unit. After one week there, she was transferred to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), where she received care for four months.

“It was somewhat traumatizing. She’s so precious,” Nicole said. “I never thought I could get through something like this. I am so thankful for these doctors for everything they did.”

Nicole and her husband, Steven Edgecomb, say their faith and support from family and friends kept them strong.

“This child is a miracle baby. She is so special. She’s here for a reason,” Steven said. “These doctors worked around the clock. They treated her like it was their child they were trying to save. We appreciate that.”

After four months in the NICU at Holtz Children’s, Symphony went home on just in time for Father’s Day. Her parents were so excited to bring her home and introduce her to her big brother, 18-month-old Jeremiah.

“We wanted everyone to know about Symphony’s case, especially other parents going through the same thing,” Steven said. “Our child could have died in the womb. If you have a special case, a special need, Jackson is the place to go.”

In February 2014, Ivanna Cardenas Gutierrez was excited to learn that she was going to be a mom. When she and her husband, David Gutierrez, went to the doctor to confirm her pregnancy, they received an unexpected surprise.

“The doctor said we were having twins – and I was shocked,” David Gutierrez said. “Then, he said there were three babies. Two minutes later, he said there was a fourth. I was speechless.”

The couple conceived quadruplets naturally, an extremely rare occurrence that happens in just 1 in 700,000 pregnancies. Approximately 90 percent of quadruplets are conceived with the assistance of medical technology.

Ivanna, 27, turned to Salih Yasin, M.D., a University of Miami/Jackson obstetrician/gynecologist who specializes in high-risk pregnancies and the delivery of multiples, to care for her throughout the pregnancy.

The pregnancy was going smoothly and Ivanna was feeling great when she went in for her 27 week check-up. But tests revealed that one of the babies was not getting enough nutrients and was at risk of dying. A decision was made to deliver all of the babies that day, August 18, 2014 – three months earlier than their November 15 due date.

A multidisciplinary team of specialists, including doctors to care for Ivanna, and neonatologists to care for the newborns, staffed the operating room at Jackson Memorial Hospital for the emergency Cesarean section. In less than two minutes, Dr. Yasin delivered three boys and one girl—Julian, Sebastian, Gabriel, and Francesca. Julian, the largest, weighed 2 pounds, 3 ounces, while Gabriel, the smallest, weighed 1 pound, 3 ounces.

The babies were under the care of a team of neonatologists at the Schatzi Kassal Project: New Born Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Holtz Children’s Hospital, where they continued to grow and get stronger until they all came home.

“There have been a lot of ups and downs, but we have gotten through it,” Ivanna said. “We know how blessed we are.”

When 6-year-old Victoria Bermudez came down with a low-grade fever, her mother, Judith Ferrer, did what most parents would: gave her Tylenol and Motrin. Over the next few days, Victoria’s fever persisted and she developed a mild cough.

When Judith noticed Victoria was breathing heavily, she took her to an urgent care center, where she tested positive for influenza and strep. While there, Victoria’s breathing got even worse. The doctor called 911 and Victoria was immediately rushed to a nearby emergency room. Over the next four hours, Victoria – a charismatic kindergartner who was previously healthy with no medical history – went into cardiac arrest three times. She was moved into intensive care, where her body went into septic shock, negatively impacting all of the organs in her body.

Victoria’s only chance at survival, her parents were told, was for her to receive extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, a treatment commonly referred to as ECMO, in which a machine takes over the work of the lungs and the heart to allow those organs time to rest and recover. With few hospitals able to offer this advanced and complicated ECMO treatment, Victoria’s parents decided they wanted her moved to Holtz Children’s Hospital at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center.

“She was perfectly healthy and from one day to the next became so critically ill that many doctors didn’t think she would live,” Judith said. “But our main priority was to get her on ECMO quickly and keep her alive.”

The pediatric transport team from Holtz Children’s – a team composed of physicians, nurses and respiratory technicians specially trained to care for the sickest patients in need of safe and rapid transportation to the hospital – picked up Victoria at the hospital where she was being treated and brought her straight to the pediatric intensive care unit at Holtz Children’s.

Doctors examined Victoria and reiterated to her parents just how dire the situation was. Within hours, Victoria was placed on ECMO, one of only a handful of children and premature babies who receive the treatment each year at Holtz Children’s.

Victoria remained on ECMO for 17 days, intubated and sedated during the treatment. Doctors encountered many obstacles along the way, including severe blood loss that required multiple transfusions and an ischemic foot, in which a lack of adequate arterial blood flow from the heart to the foot cuts off circulation. Victoria’s right foot was so severely damaged that it turned black and risked amputation, but the team of medical professionals at Holtz Children’s – pediatric critical care physicians, surgeons, and highly skilled intensive care nurses – were able to prevent that from happening.

For nearly two months, Victoria remained in the pediatric intensive care unit at Holtz, recovering from the trauma her body underwent. She required the help of a ventilator to breathe and a feeding tube for nutrition. Bed-ridden for so long, Victoria also needed daily physical, speech and occupational therapy at Jackson Rehabilitation Hospital to help her walk, regain her strength, feed herself, and talk.

As Victoria was discharged home, doctors said she would make a full recovery.

Judith—who never once left the hospital during Victoria’s illness—credits the medical team from Holtz Children’s with her daughter’s miraculous recovery.

“The medical care at Holtz has been out of this world,” she said. “This is the only place you want to be if something goes wrong – and in life there is always a chance that something might go wrong.”

In March 2014, the Richani family was vacationing in Miami from their native Venezuela when then 4-year-old Salma had trouble walking and complained of severe back pain. Her parents, Dr. Kaled Richani and Elizabeth Richani, brought her to the emergency room at Holtz Children’s Hospital at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center.

After several tests, they received the worst news of their lives: Salma had neuroblastoma, a rare type of cancer that affects the nervous system in young children.

“As a family we felt vulnerable, lost, and horrified that our little princess was in danger,” said Salma’s father, Kaled. “The news was devastating because of the uncertainty of not knowing what would be her future.”

Since then, Salma has courageously battled the disease – undergoing dozens of hospitalizations, multiple rounds of chemotherapy, and a stem cell transplant at Holtz Children’s. Through it all, she’s always remained in great spirits with a positive outlook.

“At Jackson, we discovered a home. Salma’s physicians became our friends, but our greatest strength came from the nurses who always had patience and affection when treating our daughter,” Kaled said. “They gave us that peace of mind we sought.”

Throughout Salma’s treatment, her family was always by her side. Her father would wake her up every morning with music, something that always made her smile.

Salma’s parents recorded a video of their daughter singing and dancing to her favorite song, “Volví a Nacer” – “I am reborn” – by Colombian superstar, Carlos Vives. The video went viral and was shared by thousands on the Internet. It even caught the attention of Vives. The singer visited Salma at Holtz Children’s and invited her to attend one of his concerts, in which she was astounded when he asked her on stage to sing with him.

Salma captivated the hearts of all those who crossed her path. She also received countless messages through social media using the hashtag, #Love4Salma.

As Salma completed her last round of treatment, her parents planned a surprise flash mob to greet her as soon as she left the hospital. Nearly 100 people participated, including members of the local community, Salma’s caregivers from Holtz Children’s, her family, and friends.

“I wanted to show her with this token of love that she would not return to the hospital to sleep, that there were no more immunotherapies, transplant operations, everything was over,” Kaled said. “Coming to the end of her hospitalization was a great victory.”

Click here to watch video footage from the flash mob event.