Miami Children’s Hospital staff celebrated with former patients and families at the annual Trauma Reunion event May 12. Radio Disney provided entertainment for about 60 guests who were in attendance, which included former patients ranging in age from 3 to 18 years and family members, according to a news release.

Daniel Lopez, 17, who was in a serious car accident a year earlier, was among those expressing his gratitude to the doctors and RNs. The event coincided with Daniel’s birthday. Each year, the event allows ED, ICU and unit staff; Miami-Dade Fire Rescue; physicians; physical therapists; and other hospital staff to reunite with the patients for whom they cared.

"It is always exciting to see the patients come back and to see how well they have recovered and adjusted to life post trauma," Shakeva Swain-Jones RN, BSN, clinical coordinator of the trauma center, said in the release. "The patients also enjoy coming back to see us and express their gratitude for 'saving their lives.’"

MCH also hosted an event for pediatric patients and healthcare teams April 11 for about 50 patients who had been cared for in the hospital’s CICU.

In other news, the hospital marked an important partnership with a birthday party including balloons, cake and an enrollment drive for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Connecting Kids to Coverage initiative and the text4baby program, according to a news release. CMS, which provides health coverage for more than 43 million children, and text4baby, the country’s largest mobile health information service, announced in February the partnership, designed to improve access to free and low-cost family health services for mothers and infants.

Roughly 10% of children in the U.S. are uninsured and 20% of adult women of childbearing age are living without health insurance, meaning that many are missing access to critical healthcare and information. In Florida between 2008 and 2010, about one in four women of childbearing age (28.5%) was uninsured, and in 2007, some 1,694 infants died before reaching their first birthday, according to the release. •

To learn about text4baby, visit http://text4baby.org/index.php/ miscellaneous/188-2012.