Medical students help celebrate and support local pediatric cancer patients
Last month, the Showers Family Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at Akron Children’s Hospital hosted its annual Celebration Event to honor its pediatric cancer patients. In addition to a lawn party for patients and their families, a special Akron RubberDucks baseball game was held with patient-designed jerseys and patients throwing the game's first pitch and running the bases.
The following College of Medicine students (pictured) volunteered with the Akron Children’s Hospital team on August 7 to help make the day a success:
- Grace Bollinger
- Andrew Bostick
- Prathyusha Chintalapudi
- Hannah Forsyth
- Alaina Lah
- Paige Milhon
- Joseph Osmun
- Harley Raines
- William Danh Tran
College of Medicine student Sachin Patnaik worked with Madison Coss, RN, to organize the event's volunteer efforts.
Buddy Program
Akron Children’s Hospital also partners with NEOMED's medical students to run its Pediatric Oncology Buddy Program to support pediatric cancer patients and their families outside the hospital. This year, the program is being coordinated by Oncology Interest Group executive board members Divya Warrier and Sachin Patnaik, who are working with Leah Mallinos, MSW, LSW and Maria Hartland, MSSA, LISW-S of Akron Children’s Division of Hematology-Oncology to recruit and oversee student volunteers.