UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh has a special place in my heart as they saved my life 38 years ago.

Soon after I was born via emergency C-Section in upstate NY on the evening of Thursday, November 20, 1986, it was determined that I needed a much higher level of care. By Friday morning, I was in Watertown, NY at the next tier hospital closest to us. By Saturday morning, I was at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, as my condition had continued to deteriorate. On Saturday evening, I was diagnosed with Persistent Fetal Circulation, a potentially fatal condition in which the newborn’s circulation changes back to circulation of the fetus, where much of the blood flow bypasses the lungs and makes them unable to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide.