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Tune in to WBZ Channel 4 on
Tuesday, December 16
8-11 p.m.
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The WBZ-Children's Hospital
Telethon includes inspiring patient stories, WBZ-TV and WBZ
NewsRadio personalities, an on-air auction, and entertainment,
including a performance by Keith Lockhart.
WBZ-TV 4 is Boston`s
CBS affiliate.
WBZ-Children's
Hospital Telethon
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Tuesday, December 16, WBZ-TV again helped Children’s raise thousands
of dollars for its patient care and research missions with the annual
WBZ-Children’s Hospital Telethon. And once again, several Children’s
patients agreed to share their stories with viewers in order to
demonstrate what Children’s is all about.
Caitlyn Murphy is one of them.
When Dawn Baker Murphy took her 7-year-old daughter Caitlyn to
the dentist for a routine cleaning, she never imagined that hours
later, Caitlyn would be rushed into emergency surgery to stop severe
bleeding in her brain.
While in the dentist’s chair, Caitlyn became unconscious for no
apparent reason. Soon she was rushed to Children’s Hospital Boston
where a team of 17 doctors and nurses soon found that Caitlyn was
paralyzed on her right side.
“I thought I had lost my daughter,” says Caitlyn’s mother.
Dawn remembers crying hysterically during a call to her mother
Barbara, who implored her to find Children’s Michael
Scott, MD. One of the nation’s premier neurosurgeons,
Scott had saved Barbara’s life 25 years earlier at another hospital
when he treated her for a brain aneurysm. As it turned out, Scott
was already prepping for the surgical procedure that could save
Caitlyn’s life. With Caitlyn in dire condition, Scott called Dawn
to her daughter’s bedside. “He made sure I could see my daughter
and kiss her before she went in,” Dawn says. “I knew it didn’t look
good.”
While operating, Scott found that the swelling and bleeding in
Caitlyn’s brain were the result of a malformation of her brain’s
blood vessels, a problem that had been present from birth but had
never before manifested itself. Scott, along with Pat
Burrows, MD, Rick
Robertson, MD, and a full surgical
team, worked for five hours to repair the blood vessels and stop
the bleeding.
The delicate procedure went so successfully that, amazingly, Caitlyn
was released from the hospital less than a week later.
Dawn still marvels that the same surgeon saved the lives of both
her mother and daughter. “I have a miracle in my child and in my
mother, and I owe it all to Dr. Scott,” Dawn says. “I wouldn’t take
my kids anywhere else but Children’s.”
Learn more about Caitlyn
and the other WBZ-Children’s Hospital Telethon stars.
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