My Visit To St. Jude

This last weekend I was lucky enough to tour St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for the second time.   Hopefully, I'll have the chance to go back again because each time, there are more inspiring stories and exciting advancements.  Here's some pictures from the hospital, and some important things for you to know. 

When you walk into St. Jude, one of the first things you notice is that all of the registration desks are low to the ground, or have a section lower to the ground.  It's a children's hospital, and St. Jude wants the children to feel comfortable.  It's their hospital, so they should be able to walk up to the desk.  Pretty neat!  This is just one small example of many ways St. Jude makes kids feel welcome and comfortable in "their hospital".

This is the outside of the cafeteria.  As you can see, there are fun seats for kids to sit, and more importantly, a wonderful cafeteria.  In most hospitals, doctors, nurses, and other staff eat separately from the patients.  At St. Jude, everyone eats together in the same area.  We saw doctors eating with their patients.  Also, it's important to mention that they have chefs that will cook anything for any child at anytime.  When going through chemotherapy and other treatments, it's important that when the kids can feel like they can eat, they can get whatever they want!

The hallways of St. Jude are all decorated with murals and artwork.  This section of the hospital starts off with winter, and as you walk along, the mural changes seasons.  There are many different styles of artwork throughout the hospital, and of course all of it is for the Children at St. Jude.  It definitely does not feel like your typical hospital.

On one of the walls at St. Jude, there are the "ABC'S".  These are poems written by patients of St. Jude; one for each letter of the alphabet.  They are changed and refreshed from time to time, but this one has never changed, because it is a favorite of the patients and staff.  You can't help but chuckle a little and the patients description of Vomet.  You can see the whole list of ABC's at St. Judes Website :  www.stjude.org

In the research tower, doctors work literally 24 hours a day developing methods and treatments for life threatening illnesses that children face.  In the lobby of the research center there are flags from many different countries.  Each of these flags represent a country where a doctor is from that works at St. Jude.  As you can see, St. Jude has the best doctors from around the world.

Keep listening to B105 to learn how you can help St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  Tune into our radiothon in March and learn about becoming a Partner in Hope!