This year’s theme: “ADHD, Get the Facts.”

To build awareness of the science, treatments, and consequences of untreated ADHD.

Read more at www.adhdawarenessweek.org

2011 Infantile Spasms Hero Award

Once again, in conjunction with I.S. Awareness Week, CNF is proud to announce this year’s outstanding family who has helped raise I.S. awareness while also helping the Foundation recognize an outstanding child neurologist.  The Kather family wishes to share their award with Dr. Harry Chugani.

My son Benjamin began having seizures at six months old.  His prognosis was looking pretty grim considering he had already failed two meds and had been seizing relentlessly for almost three months.

I remember being so desperate to find a physician that would treat my sons condition appropriately. I discovered Dr. Harry Chugani at Children’s Hospital of Michigan.  I sent an email and did not expect anything until after the weekend, but I received a reply an hour later.  Dr. Chugani connected us with a nurse practitioner, arranged an appointment for us with his colleague, and made sure we had the correct information sent over from our son’s neurologist.  He did all of this from the airport lounge on the weekend en route to a speaking engagement.  This is just one small example of Dr. Chugani’s commitment to his patients.

We then moved onto ACTH injections once Ben was maxed out on Vigabatrin.  Ever since, Benjamin has been seizure free. He runs, laughs, climbs on the kitchen counter, talks up a storm, plays with his older brother, and gives some of the best hugs and kisses.  I owe this miracle to the dedication, devotion, and knowledge of Dr. Harry Chugani.  He embodies all that an I.S. hero is and should be. Dr. Chugani is truly a champion for the cause, and my family will be forever grateful for the time, caring, and compassion he has shown us.

- Emily Kather

I am very humbled and honored to receive the IS Hero Award. Infantile spasms is such a devastating, but treatable disorder, that we (physicians) have to go that extra mile to make these children better.  What drives me is the emotional despair of the parents once they have read up on the disorder.

I ask myself what I would do if I were in their situation.  We know that we don’t always make the children better, but still, the parents know that we have tried, particularly if we make ourselves easily available to them and they know we are there for them.  I’d like to thank the Child Neurology Foundation for all of their efforts to increase awareness and understanding of infantile spasms.  I’d also like to thank Questcor Pharmaceuticals for the company’s support for these initiatives and for their support of research into the underlying causes of IS.

- Dr. Harry Chugani, Professor and Chief, Pediatric Neurology with Children’s Hospital of Michigan & Rosalie and Bruce Rosen Professor of Neurology with Wayne State University School of Medicine.